CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the summer
of 2019, Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) gave four interns from
historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) a challenge:
devise a way to teach middle school kids about money so they can be
prepared to lead financially healthy lives. Today, Ally launches
their answer to that challenge – Fintropolis, allyfintropolis.com,
a new world in the megahit video game Minecraft, designed to teach
financial concepts. Fintropolis is available for both Minecraft and
Minecraft: Education Edition.
Financial literacy rates in the U.S. have been dropping since
2009. Less than one-third of adults ages 18-54 can answer basic
questions related to personal finance1, creating urgency
for new approaches to early financial education. This critical
issue became the focus of four interns hired through Ally's 2019
Moguls in the Making, www.ally.com/moguls, student pitch
competition: Erin Martin from
Alabama A&M, Earl Perry and Keishon
Smith from Florida A&M, and
DeMari Tyner from North Carolina A&T. After research and field
study, the four created the concept and design for Fintropolis,
which Ally then brought to market.
"Students who don't learn how to handle money and make smart
financial choices will have a tougher time throughout their lives,"
said Smith, who was hired by Ally after he graduated. "Ally
challenged us to find a solution, so we dug in and did our
homework. We quickly realized to get middle schoolers to pay
attention and learn, we had to make it fun and hands-on. I played
Minecraft throughout school and knew how much kids of all
backgrounds loved it. When we tested our concept on students, I
wasn't surprised to see how quickly they took to it."
Martin, Perry, Smith and Tyner
worked with Ally's concept development lab, TM Studio, and
video game developer, Blockworks, to create Fintropolis.
As players explore the Fintropolis world, they learn about earning
money, paying taxes, budgeting, building credit and managing debt,
as well as investing. They also are introduced to different careers
and how early financial decisions can impact their futures.
Minecraft: Education Edition also comes with lesson plans to
connect the money concepts in Fintropolis to the classroom
curriculum. Minecraft users can access Fintropolis for free. Watch
this brief video at allyfintropolis.com to tour Fintropolis.
"When Erin, Earl, Keishon and DeMari presented their idea, we
knew then and there we had to pursue it," said Diane Morais, president, Consumer and
Commercial Banking at Ally Bank. "We have been experimenting with
fun, interactive games as a powerful way to teach financial lessons
and saw this as a possible cornerstone in that strategy. Now,
Fintropolis has the potential to give millions of students the
knowledge and confidence needed to make better money decisions,
which can affect their lives in profound ways."
Ally's Executive Director of Customer Strategy and
Innovation Emily Shallal added, "The
entire journey to launch Fintropolis demonstrates how injecting
diverse experiences and perspectives leads to innovative and
impactful problem solving. If we want to promote financial and
social inclusion, it starts by bringing a wider spectrum of people
to the creation table."
From Detroit to
Fintropolis
The four intern creators of Fintropolis first met in
Detroit as competitors at the 2019
Moguls in the Making, a business pitch competition hosted by Ally,
entertainer Big Sean's The Sean Anderson Foundation and the
Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The annual weekend-long competition
helps young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs from HBCUs bring their
ideas to life. Fifty HBCU students are selected from a pool of more
than 500 applicants, grouped into collaborative teams, and mentored
by coaches from Ally and other industry leaders. The goal: develop
and pitch a business plan that furthers economic mobility and
enhances financial and social inclusion.
Impressed by Martin, Perry, Smith and Tyner's creative thinking and presentation
skills during the competition, Ally invited the four to join its
TM Studio team as interns for the summer. Using a
human-centered design methodology, the students conducted in-person
and phone interviews with middle school teachers, parents,
principals and students. Their primary and secondary research
confirmed their solutions had to be fun, and preferably game-based,
to drive engagement. The result was Fintropolis.
"They came up with a boss solution," Big Sean said. "Fintropolis
is just one example of what HBCU students can do when given the
resources and platform to support their dreams."
The 2021 Moguls in the Making competition will take place on
Sept. 16 – 19. Students from ten
HBCUs will compete for scholarships and Ally internships.
Bringing the lessons full-circle
In conjunction with the launch of Fintropolis, Martin, Perry,
Smith and Tyner are returning to
their own middle schools in Florida, North
Carolina and Michigan to
demonstrate the world in Minecraft they helped create and share
lessons they learned along their journey from middle schooler to
"Mogul" to financial education innovator. In addition to visiting
with the students and teachers, the four each will present a
$10,000 donation to their schools
from Ally to support critical technology and curriculum needs.
Three of the interns – Tyner,
Smith and Perry - have been hired by Ally as full-time employees.
Tyner works as a data analytics
analyst while Smith is a technology operations associate analyst
and Perry is a quality assurance analyst. Martin was a Marketing
intern with Ally this summer after finishing her junior year.
About Ally Financial
Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a digital financial services
company committed to its promise to "Do It Right" for its consumer,
commercial and corporate customers. Ally is composed of an
industry-leading independent auto finance and insurance operation,
an award-winning digital direct bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and
Equal Housing Lender, which offers mortgage lending, point-of-sale
personal lending, and a variety of deposit and other banking
products), a corporate finance business for equity sponsors and
middle-market companies, and securities brokerage and investment
advisory services. A relentless ally for all things money, Ally
helps people save well and earn well, so they can spend for what
matters. For more information, please visit www.ally.com and follow
@allyfinancial.
For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit
https://www.ally.com/#disclosures.
For further images and news on Ally, please visit
http://media.ally.com.
Contact:
Brenda Rios
Ally Financial
brenda.rios@ally.com
1 FINRA, The State of U.S. Financial Capability:
The 2018 National Financial Capability Study
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SOURCE Ally Financial