Session #2

We recently had an amazing financial literacy workshop in Manila, teaching around 25 students.

For the first time, we were able to use our new financial literacy handbook in a live workshop setting, and seeing it come to life with students made the day even more meaningful. What started as an idea and a resource we worked hard to build became something real in the hands of students who were learning, participating, and applying the lessons for themselves.

During the session, we walked students through the main topics covered in the handbook:

Lesson 1: Money Mindset and Behavior

Lesson 2: Budgeting and Cashflow

Lesson 3: Banking, Wallets and Payments

Lesson 4: Saving Systems & Emergency Funds

Lesson 5: Credit, Debt and Borrowing

Lesson 6: Investing Essentials

Lesson 7: Entrepreneurship

We wanted this workshop to feel practical and engaging, so to make it more hands-on, we gave students notebooks so they could work through exercises on budgeting and saving as we went through the lessons. That part of the session was especially important, because financial literacy is not just about hearing information, but also about using it, thinking through it, and starting to connect it to real life.

We also had the students take a pre-test at the beginning of the session and a post-test at the end, and their scores improved significantly. It was encouraging to see how much they had learned in just one workshop, and it reinforced the value of making financial literacy interactive, practical, and easy to understand.

Students working on their pre-tests

One of the highlights of the day was the entrepreneurship competition at the end of the session. Students worked in teams to come up with business ideas and build out a simple plan, using the creativity and problem-solving skills they had developed throughout the workshop. It was exciting to see the energy in the room as each group presented their ideas, and the business ideas were very unique and each solved a specific problem, which was interesting to witness. The team with the strongest business plan was awarded a prize.

Every student also received a free copy of the Elevate Cents handbook, which was something we were especially proud of. Our goal has always been to create resources that students can keep learning from long after the workshop ends, and this was a big step in that mission. To wrap up the day, we also handed out some Elevate Cents merch, which made for a fun ending to an already memorable session.

This workshop meant a lot to us, not only because of the lessons we covered, but because it marked an important milestone for Elevate Cents. It was the first time our handbook was used as a real, practical guide to help students build confidence with money and think bigger about their future.

We are grateful for every student who joined us, participated, and brought such great energy to the session.