MoneySKILL® + savvy teacher, students = clean sweep
This year’s MoneySKILL® Mania financial literacy competition, taking place in high schools across western New York, equaled a clean sweep for Fredonia High School.
Kevin Seybold finished first among nearly 1,000 students in the 11th annual competition, which tests students’ proficiency with basic money management concepts, including budgeting, income, credit and insurance. As the top-scoring student, Seybold won an Apple iPad.
Coming in second and third, respectively, were Travis Langworthy and Glen Bennett, each receiving $250 for college savings. As the teacher for the top-three students, Laura DePue won a $100 gift certificate to the UB Center for the Arts.
According to a press release from the University of Buffalo School of Management, a co-sponsor of the competition with M&T Bank, students from 22 public and private schools, as well as five career and technical centers, played MoneySKILL Mania in their classrooms, across six Western New York counties. The highest scoring student from each participating school won a $50 Amazon gift card.
The competition assesses skills that students learn through the MoneySKILL program, a free online personal finance curriculum designed by Lewis Mandell, professor emeritus of finance in the UB School of Management, for the American Financial Services Association Education Foundation (AFSAEF).
Since its inception, more than 810,000 students across the nation have enrolled in MoneySKILL, which includes 36 learning modules in such areas as saving, investing, vehicle financing and renting versus owning property.
“This competition among high school students is both a pragmatic and exciting way to engage high school students in the importance of financial management as a life skill that they can always use to their advantage,” said Rhonda Ashburn, Executive Director of AFSAEF.
The UB School of Management and M&T Bank partner to provide outreach and teacher training, and host the MoneySKILL Mania competition. Since the partnership began in 2006, more than 22,000 Western New York high school students have participated in the competition.
April 17th, 2018
