M.O.M

The application's central ethos, encapsulated in the slogan "Empowering Future: One Dollar at a Time," highlights the transformative power of financial education. It aims to teach children valuable financial management skills crucial for their current circumstances and future well-being. M.O.M. is more than just a financial tool; it's an educational platform that combines practical financial management with interactive learning. The app provides a safe, virtual environment where children can learn about budgeting, saving, and spending responsibly. This is achieved through engaging activities, such as simulated financial scenarios where children decide about spending and saving and receive feedback and tips on their choices. The unique feature of M.O.M is its integration of gamification in financial education. By participating in these game-like scenarios, children can earn virtual currency, which can be used within the app to 'purchase' school supplies and uniforms or even pay for school-related expenses. This hands-on approach ensures that children learn about financial management in theory and apply it in a controlled, risk-free environment. The application's format is highly accessible and user-friendly; if there are any questions or concerns, the children can review the detailed manual instructions that may pop up if activated.

M.O.M. is a beacon of innovation in financial literacy education for underprivileged youth. By equipping them with the skills and knowledge to manage their finances, M.O.M. aspires to break the cycle of poverty and open doors to better educational and life opportunities. This approach goes beyond temporary fixes, aiming to instill confidence and self-reliance in these young individuals. Our core values are empowerment, accountability, and integrity; these values help coordinate a credible organization with an evident goal for children and children's innovation. To target our target demographic of underprivileged young teenagers in Brazil, a pilot and case study will be primarily conducted to guarantee the effectiveness and productivity of the application.

The team lead was responsible for coordinating the business idea, locating the target demographic mostly in need, judging the regional characteristics of the country's cities, choosing the appropriate headquarters, and organizing the financial balances of the organization. The team lead brainstormed and executed the idea; targeting financial literacy education was also derived from their personal experience, acknowledging the significance of intelligent financial spending from a younger age, especially in nations with a high potential for economic poverty. The target demographic was chosen in Latin America, specifically Brazil, as they noted the country as one of the Latin American nations with the lowest financial literacy and banking rates. The team lead managed any of the economic and operational balances and checks. Our team lead has ample experience with her participation and success in various competitions and challenges (Upenn's Social Justice program, Conrad, BlueOcean, NFTE, etc). As a multicultural individual, our team lead has diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences and has previously researched education, children's rights, and gender disparities. 

Our team lead has meticulous and organized time management requirements, allowing the project team to move in an organized fashion and progress the organization idea smoothly. We are organized by our best capabilities: coding, finance, operations, marketing, and more. Our specific roles and responsibilities are tailored to our characteristics. The team lead generally overviews the whole project and its progress, while more specifically, other team members are assigned one element of the project to indulge in. This provides a synergistic effect of better precision of each component while ensuring the project's overall success. Our members have previous experience with coding and Javascript. Developing an idea from scratch and coming to the degree of coding it only comes with thorough effort; with the familiarization of a significant workload, our team will be able to handle rigorous work efforts in the 12-week LEAP program. Foundational research was a critical component of our organization's idea; we still have many questions under consideration, which we desire to answer through the extensive knowledge and research LEAP supports us with. Our team members' education regarding financial literacy and app development will be simultaneously done while developing the app, promising the credibility of our application.

M.O.M empowers underprivileged Latin American children with financial literacy, offering practical skills and learning opportunities for long-term independence. 

The brutal reality of underprivileged young teenagers is far more harsh than one’s expectations. The suffocating pressure of having to constantly fret about one’s necessities and survival but also balance that with the academic burden. The student is prone to intense stress, sometimes to even worse mental health problems. If the student is put up to work twice, an average “privileged” student will be required. Since their youth, they have been asked to act as responsible adults. Many organizations have been founded to support these students in reducing the burden of these students; however, their most common function is to provide them with simple financial aid. With that money, these students may get a chance to get a breath of fresh air, but the pressure and problem only grow as they won’t be able to properly manage their finances in the future as they have become complacent to simple financial aid. They will also be unable to reach out to other people for these financial resources or opportunities, as they have been simply getting help by being unfortunate and not actively achieving it.

According to the OECD PISA 2018 Database, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Latin American nations scored the lowest percentage of students with proficiencies in financial literacy. The index’s statistics claim that in Brazil, advantaged students scored 478 points in the PISA 2018 financial literacy assessment, while disadvantaged students only scored 381 points. They concluded that socioeconomic status was a strong predictor of performance in financial literacy. The prevalent issue connects to even adulthood, as published by the Statista Research Department, and the main barrier to Latin America’s financial poverty is poor financial education. This indicates the lack of good role models in Latin American nations to teach younger children about intelligent money-spending habits and tactics. A probable solution has not been proposed to decrease the socioeconomic gap and combat the financial literacy problem caused by this disparity. The issue of financial literacy roots back from a child’s developing stage, even before they enter their adolescent to adulthood transitioning eras. To combat the problem of financial literacy, the older generations are responsible for educating the younger generations, especially as financial literacy is not a core school subject. 

M.O.M. is an application to educate children to manage and understand their finances, fostering long-term independence and resilience. The application has various features to provide users with appropriate resolutions for their financial struggles. The application’s main features are a bank account, a finance-rewarding game system, and user-friendly activities. When children first sign up for the application, they must make an account that automatically creates their own “bank account” within the application. They will be guided through an array of AI-generated questions about their current struggles, school location and name, and specific need requirements; this is done for personal information data collection, not necessarily a required step. Users will be guided daily through a gaming system. This is the primary feature of M.O.M., as these children will actively participate in the financial literacy game and earn rewards for their actions. The game activity may provide the children with a specific amount of currency and set a particular situation where they can spend it; the game will respond to the children’s decisions and provide feedback. This is only one possible game M.O.M may give to the children; there are other simple features as well, as simple as “lecturing,” where children may just flip through the study material M.O.M assigns and answer short quiz questions or other interactive situation games where they experience different scenarios and respond. With the rewards that they accumulated through the game, the reward will be put into the “bank account” as currency. This permits the children to purchase the needed school supplies, uniform money, or other staples in our application store with the accumulated currency. If they choose an item, they can pay with their game currency and then be asked to go to their desired delivery location. This can be delivered to their doorstep, school, or any other desired designated location. M.O.M will have a feature where even after they gain the currency through gaming, they will go through another “game” that teaches them how to save and use the gained currency wisely. For instance, in the purchasing process, if the children seem to make an unwise decision appropriate to their bank’s status, the application will provide them a warning and feedback on where they can change their choices or act accordingly. This application leaves no space for boredom or inefficiency; it uses every opportunity to provide users with a fun, engaging learning experience. All the vocabulary, buttons, and function features will be user-friendly and easily understandable, as the target demographic is children and young teenagers. If a younger person desires to use the app, it should be advised by a parent figure to avoid misconceptions and fulfill the best learning experience. We gathered feedback from various sources and previous users and used Google Play Console for app testing. We learned the importance of easy accessibility through feedback, which centralized our current product on user convenience and accessibility; our app’s credibility is reflected by the support and input provided by our users.

M.O.M.’s primary research entities are central to foundational and formative research. Regarding foundational research, we utilized general articles and scholarly journals indicating the severity of the problem of lack of financial education in Latin America. Few articles focused on the psychological aspects, which provided insight into the age demographic of when to begin educating the younger generations and in what aspect they best absorb new forms of information; this connects to the gamification feature of M.O.M, after concluding that children learn most effectively under entertaining yet easily comprehensible environments. Basic desktop research was done when first sketching out the problem and scale of the solution; we had to decide which region in Latin America to focus on. With some research conducted, we concluded that Belo Horizonte, Brazil, will be suitable for the solution to be centralized. This was due to the region's thriving non-profit sector; the Southeast region in Brazil provided access to the nation's rural and urban areas. Formative research was conducted to analyze the problem and target demographic in depth, further promoting the problem's urgency and to what extent it was prevalent. Credible sources such as OECD indexes were utilized to gather statistical data on the problem; various multi-measure research studies were read to sketch out the diverse branches of the problem, not limited to children themselves. From students’ spending, confidence, and banking, multifaceted data collection and research helped support a better comprehension of the atmosphere in Brazil and Latin America, focused on financial sectors.

The foundational and formative research capsulated the urgency and generalization of the problem of lack of financial education problem. The research helped us cut down and focus on a specific target demographic, not just generally all Latin Americans. It revealed the unique characteristics of the target demographic: Brazilians. They were one of the nations with the lowest financial literacy index, followed by the low financial inclusion score, the main contributor to the low value being the lack of financial education. The research helped us acknowledge the significance of financial literacy from a younger age and the lack of resources the younger generation possesses to receive a good financial education. The cognitive research done on children’s learning habits and strategies helped provide a general direction in how the application should function and the level of accessibility appropriate to the target user age range. Progressing forward with our idea, research helped establish a foundation for the different features we decided upon; the critical aspect of our app, gamification, was also derived from research. Children could learn and absorb information best through entertainment and a “rewarding” system. The specific reason for targeting younger teenagers for the application was due to the acknowledgment that financial literacy for adolescents may be too late; initially, we targeted young adults, but we realized that by that age, they would be able to create their bank accounts, and should have already accumulated ample financial resources and knowledge. We took a step back and lowered the age range to younger teenagers, so the financial knowledge they acquire from the younger age can build up to their late teenage to adult years so that nothing will be abrupt or unfamiliar to them.

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty says, “Poverty is not just a lack of money; it cannot realize one’s full potential as a human being.” Economic Poverty in Latin America poses a more significant threat than many realize. Financial literacy is not a subject taught in schools, which makes adults or guardian figures responsible for educating their children on financial education. However, their lack of financial knowledge and the overall low understanding of financial literacy in Latin America provide no entity for these young children to begin their financial education journey. Where could they learn how to manage their finances, and where will they seek assistance? These questions are going unanswered for many in specifically underprivileged regions of Latin America. Economic poverty may mean “lack of money” by definition. Still, it connects to the idea that these children and future generations cannot reach their full potential and maximize their success due to the lack of education and knowledge they can obtain. Economic poverty threatens not only the current adults but the nation’s future. Currently, research indexes and statistics have indicated the severity of the lack of financial resources and literacy provided in Latin American countries; it is plummeting every year. The values may seem quite durable for the advantaged, but the disadvantaged’s values are seemingly worsening. Acknowledging the plummeting numerical values and the struggling families in Latin America, M.O.M. finds the urgent need to dedicate a solution to combat this problem.

M.O.M. would like the LEAP Project to help answer the following research questions: How do attitudes, behaviors, and traditions toward investments and bank savings vary among Brazilians, and what is their impact on financial health? How can long-term partnerships be established with N.G.O.s and the public, private, and government sectors to foster better financial literacy and long-term organization sustainability? What are specific financial gaps or misunderstandings that are present in different socioeconomic backgrounds? 

M.O.M.'s primary desired output is for the model's design to be flawless. The design element still needs to be improved and is still being iterated. This idea is still in the "pilot" stage of creation. After 12 weeks, we hope to publish the best condition of the model and productively solve the prevalent problem we desire. We believe that despite the business' great potential, it lacks a professional aspect; some sectors would need polishing more professionally, and the application should be perceived from a more experienced perspective; we hope that the LEAP program will assist us throughout the journey and help develop our app to perfection. As for the research questions, the reason for selecting question 1 was the inquiry into the psychological aspects of financial spending in Brazil. We wondered if any present attitudes were encouraging these citizens to pursue financial literacy in a particular manner that resulted in today's current outcomes. The second question was raised as M.O.M. is a non-profit organization; we questioned the long-term sustainability of this application without any external support. We wanted to discover strategies and external entities to partner with to guarantee a better success of M.O.M. Lastly, the last question was selected with a big question on any negative impacts the socioeconomic statuses have on financial understandings despite previously researching that statuses do have a particular effect on these citizens' financial spendings and education, the question of its extent and impact on financial misunderstandings was not yet answered, which we hope to find out through the help of the LEAP program. A general summarization of our planned research process would be first to define objectives, then formulate a hypothesis and choose a methodology direction, request I.R.B. approval for ethical checks, contact our target demographic, collect data, compare groups that receive our product and those who do not (will conduct surveys and interviews for both qualitative and quantitative data), and finally analyze our data and results using R software (quantitative) and NVivo (qualitative).

M.O.M. is only yet a “pilot” solution; despite its promising resolution and potential for success, many aspects can be improved and monitored, specifically through the lens of a professional. Through professionally managed facilitation, LEAP provides 12 weeks for the organization to maximize its success and resolve critical errors for the better functioning of the application. We believe the application may be simple, offering an advantage while simultaneously being a weak spot. If final reports of specific strategies, customized plans, or resolutions are made, the application will be ready for the “growth” level. We can utilize any of our research results and developed products to expand potential collaborations or partnerships. If any feedback is given, we are more than ready to embrace and take action to guarantee that M.O.M. exceeds its current potential. Since the design element is our current weakness, to enhance our user experience, we can utilize the professional support the LEAP program provides to polish our application and make it easier for the younger generation to access it. 

The long-term outcomes that M.O.M aims to achieve are more than just better technology, application formatting, or general elements. It’s for the target demographic, young teenagers, to create and access their bank accounts. From there, M.O.M can simultaneously develop with them by adding new functionalities that educate them on new aspects of financial literacy, the more advanced and technical sectors of financial education, to prepare them for a new chapter in their lives. As the LEAP project is a sprint, we aim to thoroughly polish and publish the application to its best condition by the end of 12 weeks so that we can continue to grow and expand the impact of our application. Since our app mainly focuses on younger teenagers, by the end of the project, we wish to begin another feature of our app where an older target demographic can still utilize our functions and receive the financial education they may not have been able to access. We will specify a more detailed metric and measurement for success and impact over time to monitor our app’s progress and effectiveness post-completion of our project.