Reaching Goals with Solid Plans

Cornell senior and 2018 Sunward scholarship winner Rebecca Restrepo has a lot to look forward to in 2019. The Industrial and Labor Relations major will start a job with Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati following a semester of travel. “It’s very important to know what your goals are and how you are going to achieve them. Recognize your priorities,” she advises. “They make a difference in your financial planning.”

Rebecca worked at a campus gym to build up her travel fund. She put most of her Sunward scholarship award toward room and board. “It was incredible to receive the scholarship,” she says.

“My family has always instilled the financial basics and stressed the importance of having a safety net.” Rebecca has had an account with the Credit Union for as long as she can remember. She opened a Sunward credit card in 2018 to start building a credit history so she’ll be able to rent an apartment soon.

In Rebecca’s scholarship essay, she described saving for a trampoline when she was young, only to discover that the safety net cost extra… a lot extra. Instead, she put the funds she’d earned into her savings account. It was an experience that echoes her current feelings about money. “To be a functioning adult in the real world,” she says, “you have to make sacrifices.”