Well it is that time of year when students are all back in school and for those of us with ones in college, it can be a frightening experience. However, after opening the bill that was sent to me from the college my daughter is attending, I was pleasantly surprised. You see earlier this year I received an email from the ACA about the Loomer-Mortenson Scholarship Program. I thought, “my family never wins anything but what the heck, if nothing else it will give my daughter some good practice in writing essays.” The topic was the value of consumer credit to our nation’s economy.
My daughter has known her dad to be a debt collector her whole life and has heard discussions on many occasions about the value of collections. While my daughter was in high school, she had taken a personal finance class. In that class she told me that they were utilizing a book written by Dave Ramsey who had portrayed collectors in an extremely negative light. I mentioned this in the parent-teacher conference and the teacher then offered me to come in and teach a class as it would be a great experience to hear from someone in the industry. Well it was this opportunity that I took to re-educate my daughter’s class from the brainwashing that they were receiving. Long story short, I did it and each child in the class wrote me a thank you note for opening their eyes about how important the collection industry is.
The essay that my daughter had written was about how debt collectors actually bring back money into the economy which is then used to buy more goods and services, thereby strengthening our economy. I am very proud how my daughter, Mikayla, debunked the notion that all bill collectors are rude and dishonest (as she was taught in school). Mikayla was awarded a $1,000 scholarship and we are very thankful to the ACA and the ACA Education Foundation’s scholarship program for granting this money. Mikayla is studying to become a teacher and has vowed to not use the same books that portray collections so negatively.
by Rick Rainho, President of Collections, Kinum
