Dr. Squires-Caesar

In Review

Before the Next Storm: Preserving Jamaican Communal Savings Group Experiences During and After Hurricane Melissa

Oral History Association Emerging Crises Fund

Embedded Financial Literacy into the Mandatory Freshman Orientation Course

Infused a fun, financial literacy component into a mandatory, first-year orientation course. A key part of this program involved a micro-savings class project that transitioned the financial literacy section from merely discussing philosophical behavior change to an action-based/experiential, tangible method that inspired and motivated participants to think about money differently.

Financial Coaching

Each semester, a number of college students experience economic crises (e.g. job loss, eviction, utility turn-off notices, auto emergencies) that negatively impact their academic goals. The financial coaching program provided emergency funds and one-on-one financial coaching partnerships with students to develop attainable financial goals and create realistic plans of incremental steps towards achieving them.

Financial Literacy Across the Curriculum

Embedded financial literacy education into select Math, Economics, Reading, and English courses. The primary objective was to provide opportunities for students to explore their attitudes and expand their knowledge of societal economic issues as first steps in behavioral change and personal economic decision-making.

Virtual Reality & Future Savings Goals (co-managed grant)

Utilized virtual reality to provide an interactive activity that might assist participants with making more empowered financial decisions to save and plan for the future. The project created a virtual reality “world” that would allow students to visualize an older version of themselves, helping them better connect with their future self.

Institutional Award

Leah Meyer Austin Award | Achieving the Dream Inc.

Contributed to the college's receipt of this national student achievement award through the development of the embedded financial literacy segment for the mandatory freshman orientation course. For example, a cornerstone of the program included a microsavings/“piggy bank,” which was a hands-on, experiential activity. The students collectively saved almost $80,000 in a 2-3 year span.

Lumina Foundation for Education established the Leah Meyer Austin Award in 2008 to recognize community colleges' outstanding achievement in supporting and promoting student success through the principles of Achieving the Dream: committed leadership, use of evidence to improve programs and services, broad engagement, systemic institutional improvement, and equity.

The award is given in honor of Leah Meyer Austin, an Achieving the Dream board member and former senior vice president at Lumina Foundation, whose visionary leadership shaped Achieving the Dream. Award recipients have systemically and sustainably transformed their institutions by shaping programs, practices, and services to promote success for all students, especially low-income students and students of color.

Bellwether Award Recipient

Outstanding and Innovative Instructional Programming — “Who Said Pigs Can't Fly? A Grassroots Approach to Financial Literacy Education”

Center for Working Families / MDC / Annie E. Casey Foundation Award

National Council for Marketing and Public Relations Award

Mini Documentary, “Beyond the Classroom Walls”

Center for Working Families / MDC / Annie E. Casey Foundation: College Innovator Award

Promoting Student Success and Economic Security

CASE Europe — Leadership in Development Management Study Tour

Outstanding Program Recognition Award

Dresher Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Research Fellow

University of Maryland, Baltimore County — Fall 2023

Project: Finding Face and Building Financially Resilient Spaces: Becoming Communal Agents of Economic Change Workshop.

An Interactive Storytelling Experience — UMBC Magazine article, Fall 2023.

Imagining America Artists and Scholars in Public Life Fellowship

2023-2024