When Luis Zapata first left his home country of Mexico to pursue his master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame in 2004, he figured he would punching his ticket back south once he achieved his goal.

Ten years later, Zapata remains a resident of the Michiana area, with a new goal in mind: helping to improve the financial acumen of the local Hispanic community.

Zapata, a branch manager with 1st Source Bank, was the special guest speaker during the meeting of the Dowagiac Rotary Club on Thursday. In his remarks to the members in attendance, Zapata shared some stats he found about the city while writing his speech.

“What strikes me the most is that the median household income of Dowagiac is only $31,964 compared to $48,000 for the State of Michigan,” Zapata said. “And Michigan is not known for being a rich state.”

In addition, he pointed out that 20.9 percent of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, versus only 16 percent for the rest of the state.

Paying close attention to these figures is not simply a hobby for the banker: he is also a member of the board for the Bridges Out of Poverty organization in St. Joseph County.

Zapata has made it a goal of his to combat the effects of poverty, both inside and outside his job. In addition to his responsibility of managing several 1st Source branch offices, he is also in charge of organizing financial literacy classes, aimed at improving spending and saving education among Hispanics living in the Michiana area.

Reaching out to church groups and schools across the region, Zapata teaches attendees on how to better understand how banking works, and how manage their funds to help them improve their current living situation.

“If we teach someone to manage their money and not be broke, that’s a step forward,” he said. “The community will benefit, because if people can control their money, they’ll have more to spend at the hardware store and do some household projects. Instead of putting off seeing the dentist, they can go see the dentist.”

What drives his passion for this project isn’t a desire to boost the amount of new checking accounts or loans at the bank, but to lift the lives of the people who live in the communities where they do business, he said.

“By making our community stronger, our bank will be stronger,” Zapata said.