Junior Neziah Osayi, financial literacy advocate and Resident Advisor in Brooks Crossing, teamed up with the Students’ Association (SA) to present Monday about the financial options available to students impacted by the flooding of Brooks Crossing.
Focusing on renters insurance, he went through the basics of personal property insurance. He talked about how to research which is best for each individual, what different coverages renters insurance may have, where you can buy it, and more.
“I just thought that renters insurance was important, and it was something that I didn’t even know about when the whole Brooks flooding issue happened,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
Dean Jeffrey Runner, who attended the Monday SA meeting, agreed on the value of renters insurance and expressed concern over the loss and damage of personal property of students living in Brooks Crossing.
“A lot of students lost belongings, a lot of people have damaged belongings, and that’s stuff that you just can’t, you know, there’s just not a whole lot you can do about that,” he said.
Runner also emphasized that although the flooding was what he called a “once-in-a-decade event,” one can and should take measures to protect oneself.
Osayi agreed. “Sure, it can be once in 10 years, or it can happen the next year,” he said. “But do we want to be in the same position we are today, we are tomorrow? I think not.”
Other concepts covered in Osayi’s presentation included:
- Homeowners insurance
- Educational tax credits and the IRS eligibility test to determine eligibility for such credits
- Sites where refurbished and/or discounted computers can be bought
- The importance of financial education and resources to learn more about finance
Osayi’s passion for financial education began when he took a financial literacy class in his junior year of high school.
“It was the most important class I had taken in all of high school, because it actually translated to the things I was gonna eventually face, and the things that I was already facing now in my life,” Osayi said in an autobiographical YouTube video.
Ever since then, Osayi has been a firm advocate for financial literacy.
In August 2021, he started his Instagram page That’s Clearly Wealth (@thats_clearlywealth), where he creates and posts educational shorts about finance and financial literacy. He has partnered with the University’s Admissions Department and Next Gen Personal Finance to create educational videos on YouTube about the same topics.
Then, in the fall of 2022, he won iZone’s Make It Happen grant, allowing him to create a platform for financial literacy for the class of 2023 to prepare them for the financial challenges that they will face once they graduate. He plans for the program to launch sometime in February.
“I do this, I’m committed to it,” Osayi said. “I have plans of other ways I plan on educating students here, so […] I’m here. Like I’m not going anywhere, this isn’t a fad for me, like this is kind of a life mission.”
