University of Maryland Student Project

[Community Development Banking List]

Original message from: jgeorge3@umd.edu

Good morning,

My name is Jason George and I am a member of Team ANSWER Poverty in the Gemstone Program at the University of Maryland. The Gemstone Program is a four-year undergraduate research program for honor students. Over the last few years my team has been studying the barriers that Latino immigrants face when trying to access financial services. We have been conducting focus groups in the community around the university as well as analyzing some quantitative data and are currently writing our thesis, which we will present and defend in March of 2009.

I am writing today to ask if anyone would be available to serve as a discussant for our thesis panel, which is tentatively scheduled for March 27, 2009 at 4:15. We are looking for experts would would be willing to read our thesis in March, prepare a brief written critique of our paper, and attend our thesis conference at the university in College Park, Maryland to give our team feedback on our work.

Please e-mail me at jgeorge3@umd.edu if you are interested in serving as a discussant by Friday. If you would like to find out more about our project please visit answerpoverty.org.


Thank you,


Jason George