One of my responsibilities at work is to run a scholarship program for our constituents. I've been deep in the weeds of application review for the past few days. One strange thing I've noticed- a lot of people don't have their own checks.

More than 15% of the applications were accompanied with money orders or checks in another name. There was another group (15% or so)of applicants whose employers sponsored their application fee.

Another one of my responsibilities is to provide work related trainings for our constituents. After seeing all of this I want to provide some personal financial literacy trainings. It doesn't fit at all with our mission (or funding) but I feel that the lack of personal checking accounts is indicative of other issues our constituents face.