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Mike Pierre: Education for Financial Security

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As we celebrate KCET's 50th anniversary, we are visiting your community to ask you, what makes you love California and how we can envision a better future for all. The following was recorded at the Burbank Ice Rink, December 2014. For more and to participate in our next 50 years, join us at kcet.org/50.

"My name is Mike Pierre, I live in Glendale, I'm a personal banker.

"I'm originally Haitian, my family's from Haiti. Moved to Glendale in pursuit of music with my older brother, I wound up staying in Glendale and living in Glendale for the last 10 years.

"Yeah I love the diversity; it's much like New York. The mixture of different ethnicities, it's beautiful.

"Community is important. It's an important aspect of life. The block that you grow up on and the individuals that live within that border, it's important that you know them and that they know you. It's just like having a neighbor.

"The people that you're exposed to, you take from them. Their different viewpoints, their cultural aspects they represent. Some of that is kinda shaped on you and changes your perception of life.

"Any time that you have an exclusive environment it really doesn't foster creativity or innovation. Just fostering that inclusive mentality brings everybody together and it contributes so much more to society as a whole.

"America was built on prosperity and the competitive structure if you perform and if you do, you can achieve but I don't think that's the case for everybody we do have a large, probably the masses living paycheck to paycheck.

"And I think when we speak of the educational factors we got to make sure we are providing them the best structure and platform for them, especially in grade school. We really want to make sure they are capturing the fundamentals on finance, on how to live a prosperous life and how you can achieve that. I think that's really key and that's one of the elements that we forget through our educational system, is to educate people on how to be financially secure."

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