Project for Temple University's Owlhacks Hackathon
- Crystal Secaira (csecaira)
- Lesly Catota-Lopez (leslyclopez11)
- Tina Chen (tinaachenn)
- Marcus Wright (MarcusW03)
As first-generation, low-income students with immigrant backgrounds, we have personally experienced the struggles of navigating financial literacy without guidance. Growing up, many of us didn’t have access to basic financial knowledge—especially about credit cards. This lack of understanding is common in marginalized communities, where the concept of building credit is often unfamiliar. Our families often avoided credit cards out of fear or lack of knowledge, and we found ourselves lost when it came time to make informed financial decisions. This inspired us to create a platform that would empower others from similar backgrounds to take control of their financial futures.
FLI-Credit is a comprehensive learning platform designed to help first-generation, low-income students understand and navigate the world of credit cards. The platform offers a series of educational modules, each covering key aspects of credit, including:
- Why Get a Credit Card? – Explains the benefits and importance of having a credit card, especially for building credit and financial independence.
- Credit Card Terms – Breaks down the essential terms and jargon, such as APR, credit limit, and grace periods, to make sure users fully understand what they’re signing up for.
- Credit Card Types – Details the different kinds of credit cards available, such as secured, unsecured, student, and rewards cards, so users can make informed choices based on their needs.
- Authorized User – Discusses how being an authorized user on someone else’s account can help users build credit, and explains the risks and benefits of this arrangement.
- Using a Credit Card – Offers practical advice on how to use credit responsibly, including paying off balances, avoiding interest, and managing spending.
- Credit Card Example – Walks through a real-world example of using a credit card, highlighting what users should expect when opening and using their first card. One of the standout features is our chatbot, which provides real-time answers to any questions users may have about credit cards, helping them get quick and reliable information without needing to dive into overwhelming internet searches. The goal is to provide accessible, bite-sized learning in a way that resonates with students who, like us, didn’t grow up learning about finances at home.
We used Streamlit for both the frontend and backend development of the platform. Streamlit's flexibility allowed us to quickly iterate on our UI and provide a seamless user experience. For the chatbot feature, we integrated OpenAI's API, enabling us to create an intelligent assistant that can answer user queries based on their specific needs. The chatbot leverages the vast knowledge base of OpenAI to offer quick responses to any credit-related questions, giving users a personalized and interactive experience. Throughout the build, we focused on creating an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate and designed with accessibility in mind—using clear fonts, readable text sizes, and color schemes that meet accessibility standards.
Running this project locally requires a virtual environment. If you have one great, just run 'pip install -r requirements.txt' inside your environment.
- You can create a python virtual environment by running 'python -m venv .venv' in your project directory. You can activate the environment by running 'source ./.venv/bin/activate'.
- You can create a conda virtual environment by running 'conda create --name env'. You can activate the envionment by running 'conda activate env'
- Once you have a running environment, you can run 'pip install -r requirements.txt' to install the required libraries.
Running the app with Streamlit is super easy! With an activate environment and required libraries installed, you can run 'streamlit run app.py'
To run the chatbot feature, then you will need an openai api key. Instructions can be found here.
- Add you Api Key to the .streamlit/secrets.toml file. Simply replace "Your Personal Key" with you own key.