Photograph of Marvin and Jean BauerMarvin and Jean Bauer in 2011

Fostering financial education

A recent gift from Professor Emeritus Marvin Bauer supports financial education outreach for high school students

Marvin Bauer—Marv to his many friends—is a professor emeritus in the University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). A pioneer and field shaper in the science of remote sensing, he spent four decades investigating, developing, and refining its applications to help analyze land use and monitor lake quality.

Marv’s illustrious career was matched by that of his late wife, Jean Bauer (1944-2012), a professor in CEHD’s Department of Family Social Science. Her scholarly legacy in extension and research focused on how family economics are affected by policy. With an academic foundation in home economics education, including a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Jean’s commitment to financial education for high school students and families was lifelong.

In the past few years, Marv has made generous philanthropic gifts aimed to insure that CEHD and University of Minnesota Extension will be able to carry Jean’s legacy far into the future. Funds support faculty and graduate student research and outreach in family economics. His most recent gift of $50,000 to establish the Jean W. Bauer Fund for Financial Education will support early financial training for high school students. Currently, the fund is supporting associate professor Joyce Serido’s partnership program with public schools.

“Because early financial education is the foundation for later financial literacy, there is an urgent need to reach out—and to teach—our youth how to make good financial choices now—before they find themselves struggling financially,” says Serido.

Marv agrees.

“The need for financial education is greater now than in the past, when financial education was part of high school curricula,” he says. “Jean would have loved this fund, for it addresses a pressing need in an area to which she was passionately committed. I’m excited to partner with CEHD to make this critical outreach effort as impactful as possible.”

Learn more about Jean and Marvin Bauer.

Read about Joyce Serido’s work on financial well-being with youth and families in “Financially Capable,” a story in Connect’s spring/summer 2017 issue.

Winter 2018