Thank you for participating in our February $100 sweepstakes! A total of 56 parents submitted their answers to enter the drawing.
For this month’s sweepstakes winner, we have Yanira Escobar. Yanira and her family are a part of our low-touch program which aims to reach parents whose students are not yet in high school but would like to start saving for college now. She and her family are from Lynn where her children attend school at KIPP Elementary. Yanira has a special case that not every parent experiences. She is the mother of Joshua and Noah who are twins.
Yanira and her family first learned about Inversant at the boy’s school. That same night, Yanira decided she wanted to join our program. When we asked Yanira why it was so important that she join, she replied, “It was important to us because of our kids’ future. We knew with having twins, we needed to start early, so we loved the idea of having both the knowledge about college and the savings to go along with it.” Yanira and her family took the initiative to start saving early.
Knowing that both of your children will be going to college at the same time can be stressful. Yanira tells us that she started saving for the boys as soon as she found out she was pregnant. She always had the plan of sending her children to college and was proactive in her saving. The message that Yanira shares to inspire families to start saving early is to think about the future. She shares, “Just think about your kid’s future now and how time flies! It goes really fast and all of sudden they are going off to college. Instead of stressing, you can have peace in knowing that you have a net just in case.”
Yanira has high hopes for her sons attending college. She believes that receiving a college education is a major component in changing the life that one lives. Yanira shares with us that, “There has only one person in my family who has attended college, my sister. Seeing her go to college and all the positive feedback has been really inspiring. If you want a better future and an easier life, education comes first.” Seeing her sister go to college has provided Yanira with an example of what she wishes her boys will follow. “I want my kids to go to school and give it their all. Thinking about my kids being the first in our family to go to college is really exciting.”
At Inversant, we hope that each of our families walks away with something that they have learned about the college process. This ranges from finding your child’s interest and thinking of a major, to figuring out what financial paper work to fill out. Yanira notes that her son (Joshua) is always building things and may be interested in architecture, and her other son (Noah) may be into medicine or video game design.
Inversant parents have much to be proud of. For Yanira, “Signing up and getting started,” was her proudest moment. She shares how eager she was to start saving and feels that other parents should feel the same way. It does not matter how large or small of a contribution that is made toward saving, but the habit that will help make a difference.