Chairman Donaldson of the Securities and Exchange Commission addresses an attentive audience at the Jump$tart Awards Dinner on April 1st at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC.

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy held it's 2004 Biennial Awards Dinner on the evening of April 1st in Washington, DC. The elegant event took place at the historic Willard Intercontinental Hotel, and included nearly 300 participants representing corporations, non-pofit organizations, governmental agencies and congressional offices. The evening's keynote speaker was Chairman William H. Donaldson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ric Edelman, chairman and founder of Edelman Financial Services, Inc. served as emcee for the event. The dinner's purpose was to draw attention to the need for personal finance education among young adults and to recognize outstanding achievements in this area. The platinum underwriter for the evening was Citigroup. Other major sponsors include Capital One, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo.

The highlight of the evening was the keynote address, delivered by Chairman Donaldon of the SEC. Other notable individuals in attendance from the SEC included Commissioner Cynthia Glassman and Susan Wyderko, Director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education. The evening boasted additional special guests, including Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Deputy Assistant Secretary Dan Iannicola, of Treasury's Office of Financial Education.

The evening also featured several awards presentations. The first award given was the William E. Odom Visionary Leadership Award. This special award was created in 1999 by Jump$tart to recognize individuals who have made substantial lifetime contributions to the promotion of personal financial literacy for young adults. This year's recipient was Dr. Lewis Mandell, Professor of Finance and Managerial Economics, and former Dean of the School of Management, at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In an emotional presentation, Dr. Mandell received his award from last year's winner, William Anthes, President and CEO of the National Endowment for Financial Education.

Later in the program, the Jump$tart Coalition unveiled two new and much anticipated awards. The Federal Legislator awards were presented by Gary Kohn, Vice President of Legislative Affairs at the Credit Union National Association. Jump$tart established the Federal Legislator awards this year to recognize leadership among one member each from the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in the promotion of personal financial literacy for young people. The first award went to Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, and the second went to Congressman David Dreier of the 26th District of California.

The evening wrapped up with one final award, entitled the Soaring $tar award. The Soaring $tar award was created to recognize outstanding corporate initiatives to improve youth personal financial literacy. First place was granted to Merrill Lynch for the Investing Pays Off program. Eddy Bayardelle, head of the Merrill Lynch Foundation, was on hand to accept the award. JPMorganChase received second place, in recognition of their foundation's annual million dollar financial literacy grant program. Accepting on behalf of JPMorganChase was Ms. Deborah Smith, Vice President of the Foundation. Lastly, third place was presented to Citigroup for their development of the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum. Michael Schlein, Citigroup's Senior Vice President of Global Affairs and Human Resources, accepted the award on Citigroup's behalf.

Through the funds raised at the Awards Dinner, the Jump$tart Coalition can continue its important work of seeing to it that every student has the fundamental personal finance skills needed to be self supporting—skills like how to use a credit card responsibly; how to set up a household budget; and how to save for retirement. Jump$tart is working hard toward the day when every high school graduate has the rudimentary skills in money management that they need to make wise decisions in today's complex financial world.

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the personal financial literacy of young adults by developing, disseminating, and encouraging the use of standards for grades K-12; and by promoting personal finance education at home and in school. Jump$tart's mission is supported by 140 corporations, government agencies, education associations and nonprofit providers of financial education across the United States. For more information, visit www.jumpstart.org. This site offers teacher training and guest speaker locators, monthly mini-lessons, links to partner organizations, and helpful tips on budgeting, saving, and investing.