Students worried about their financial futures in the current recession received one bit of advice at the Moorpark College Business Expo on April 24.
Just keep doing what they’re currently doing.
“Stay in school, because the economy anywhere right now is just in the dumpster,” said Brian Cohen, the President of the Business Students Association. “So however you get the education, get it, it will get you a lot more later on when things do change.”
The Expo was held on April 24 and was organized by the Moorpark College Business Students Association. The Business Expo featured a series of lectures on different aspects of business, finances and networking from those in the industry.
“It’s basically to give students and other community members an idea of what happens in the business world,” said Business Professor Navreet Sumal.
Elad Goren, a financial planner for Financial Pointe in Westlake Village, took students through a typical day in his profession while also giving out his own financial advice.
“I talked to them about saving, and how they need to put money aside these days for an ugly time like we’re in right now,” said Goren.
Executive Director of the University of California Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project Billy Watkins headlined the expo with his presentation “Ventura County Economic Review and Forecast,” where he discussed the impact the recession has had on both Ventura County and California as a whole.
While Watkins believed that Ventura County’s unemployment numbers would get worse before they got better, he said that the student audience has time to let things improve.
“The good news is that you are young enough to stay in college a few years and wait until the economy improves,” said Watkins.
Watkins also went over how he feels the stimulus package has been squandered by using the money to bail out efficient and inefficient banks alike, which he says is creating an unbalanced system.
“Let them (the inefficient banks) go bankrupt,” said Watkins. “It seems like a crazy idea, but the bankruptcy system is something designed and built over decades and hundreds of years as an orderly way to reallocate assets, and its worked.”
Katie Collup, a 19-year-old Business Major enjoyed the eclectic mix of speakers.
“I thought it was very informative,” said Collup. “It was interesting to have a bunch of people from different fields.”
The expo ended with free refreshments and pizza in the cafeteria, where Sumal took a moment to think of the most important information students should take from the event, a point that echoes Cohen’s advice.
“Finish your degree, no matter what. Stay in school, make sure you finish your degree and get at minimum an A.A.,” said Sumal. “Because nowadays an A.A. is what the old high school degree used to be, it’s an absolute minimum requirement.”
UCSB Economics Professor Bill Watkins projects unemployment to reach double digits. (Jonathan Castillo)
