A business student has been selected as a finalist in the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Savvy Credit Video Contest for his video on how to improve your credit score.
Shamir Goicochea's video made it to the second round, and he faces 19 other contestants. Goicochea worked on the video last semester in his Securities, Trading and Analysis course. Although the assignment was optional, Goicochea chose to take on the challenge.
According to Goicochea, the Savvy Credit Video contest is held annually and accepts hundreds of videos from the Tri-State area. There is an assigned topic, and contestants must make a 30-second video that explains that topic.
Judges select the 20 best submissions. Those 20 videos are then released to the public, and a vote determines the top 10.
The top prize is a $3,000 scholarship.
For his entry, Goicochea said he chose to emphasize "that in order to improve your credit score you need to know your credit information as well as take control of it." Some suggestions he gave include learning your credit score, figuring out "where or why you are using the amount of credit you have used so far," and learning some companies' opinions on you based on your credit report.
"(It is) up to each of us to keep track of our expenses, make budgets and actually apply ourselves to obtain the necessary information to move forward," Goicochea said.
In addition to the prize, Goicochea said that there are other benefits to participating in this contest.
He said this contest will "be a great demonstration of my creativity and my ability to take something simple and create something great."
Elena Vitullo can be reached at elena.vitullo@student.shu.edu.
