GMAC Financial Services to Award $20,000 to San Diego Students for Textbooks

According to GMAC Financial Services, the SmartEdge Book Allowance Program will be awarding $1000 to 20 students in San Diego that they can use to purchase their college text books.

Everyone knows that college textbooks are very expensive, used or brand new, and this program will help relieve twenty students in San Diego of going into debt while buying these necessary books. The contributors of the total $20,000 in donations is actually known as GMAC Financial Services and they have taken the money from their SmartEdge Book Allowance Program to J.O.B., which stands for Justice Overcoming Boundaries. This basically means that the money donated will go to students who have had to overcome obstacles in order to make it this far to decide to attend secondary-school.

In order for the twenty students to receive these awards, they had to fit within certain criteria. This included living in San Diego County, being accepted to an accredited University, portraying excellence and service in the community, and most important, having to come over extreme barriers or obstacles as they fought their way to pursue their goals in education.

"The SmartEdge program gives students an understanding of personal finance at a very important stage in their lives," said Vicky Rodriguez, chairperson of the Fiesta Del Sol Education Committee. "Helping students with the cost of textbooks improves their chances of being able to continue their education, knowledge about personal finance and help them become financially responsible adults."

The recipients will receive their awards on Saturday August 18^th 2007 at the Fiesta Del Dol street festival which is presented by Justice Overcoming Boundaries. This is the second annual year of this festival and the festival will celebrate the people of San Diego's different cultures, history, as well as their engagement.

So what exactly is SmartEdge by Gmac? It is actually a campaign for free financial literacy. Its main goal is to help individuals with many different things including budgeting, how to finance one's income to their own needs, as well as how to establish and keep good credit which will lead to good financial decisions in the long run. During the upcoming festival this weekend, SmartEdge will also launch free seminars to everyone who wants to learn more about their campaign and goals. SmartEdge is certainly out there to help everyone who wants it.

"GMAC believes education is a key component of building stronger communities across the United States," said Barbara Stokel, executive vice president, GMAC North American Operations. "The SmartEdge Book Allowance was created to complement our SmartEdge financial literacy program, and is a way to encourage recipients to maintain healthy personal finances, while encouraging higher education."

SOURCE

GMAC Financial Services