Banking Club creator Martha Pritchard Spear gives Saranac Lake sixth grade student Isabella Fuller a certificate of course completion and a $90 check at the Shipman Youth Center in Lake Placid on Wednesday.
(Enterprise photo — Sydney Emerson)
LAKE PLACID — Twenty middle school students from Lake Placid and Saranac Lake made their way to the Shipman Youth Center during a snowstorm on Wednesday evening for pizza, soda and $90 checks with their names on them. It was the final meeting of the Banking Club, an after-school financial literacy group aiming to teach middle school students how to manage their money.
Club creator Martha Pritchard Spear, a nonprofit business consultant in Lake Placid, said that her decision to propose the club was “completely on impulse.”
“In the Rotary Club, of which I am a member, we have this thing where we make a donation,” Pritchard Spear said. “Some people say, ‘Oh, I’m going to donate this case of wine’ and people bid on it and that becomes the donation. I couldn’t think of anything, so I said ‘I’m going to start a financial literary program for middle school students.’ But then the (Adirondack) Foundation funded it in the amount of over $3,000 and I was so proud.”
The Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts Fund helped get the club on its feet, as well as contributions from the Tri-Lakes Federal Credit Union and the Rotary Club of Lake Placid. The funds covered staffing and a school bus for the club, as well as the checks that the students received for completing the course. The club alternated meetings at the Shipman Youth Center in Lake Placid and the Saranac Lake Youth Center. At the end of the course, along with their newfound financial literacy, each student also received a certificate of completion and a check for $90 that they could spend or save however they wanted.
Representative from Community Bank taught the first five weeks of classes, which focused on what to expect inside of a financial institution. Students learned how to navigate banking and loans. Then, a Tri-Lakes Federal Credit Union representative taught the latter half of the course, spending five weeks on saving, budgeting, spending and credit.
Heather DeForest, CEO of Tri-Lakes Federal Credit Union, taught the second half of the club’s classes. She said that she tried to use examples that were relevant to the kids’ lives, like saving for a gaming console or concert ticket.
“We brought it down to that level where it’s stuff they knew, stuff they use,” she said.
She also brought in the credit union’s budget for the next year for the students to examine. She said she was impressed by how engaged the students were.
“A lot of this stuff they’re not going to use until they’re way older, but they’ve got the base. It’s there,” DeForest said. “And, really, the amount that they’ve retained is phenomenal. You don’t think they’re paying attention to you in the least and then it’s like you ask a question and they just come out with it.”
DeForest said that some students were there of their own volition, interested in increasing their knowledge. However, the majority of the students were signed up by their parents.
“The 20 that have remained and gone through the whole entire class, I really think they got into it once they were there,” DeForest said.
Saranac Lake sixth grade student Isabella Fuller was one of the kids signed up by her parents. She agreed with DeForest — once she started participating, she got interested.
“At first, I was hesitant to participate in Banking Club,” she said. “However, my parents explained how important it is for kids to learn about banking. I am very happy I did it. We learned about how banks work, saving and how we can keep our money safe and not get scammed.”
Isabella’s mom, Jennifer Fuller, said that the club was a “crucial education program.”
“Upon notification that the Banking Club was being offered to middle school students, my husband and I immediately spoke to our sixth grade daughter about the significance and importance of the program and enrolled her immediately,” she said. “We feel there is a void of common knowledge banking skills among our young people today, and felt that this was an opportunity to get our daughter educated in basic banking processes at an age where work ethic and saving become critical to her future success.”
Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit organization focused on teaching adolescents financial literacy, tracks which states requires students to take a personal finance course in order to receive their high school diplomas. Currently, there are 24 states with financial literacy education requirements in place. New York has no financial literacy requirements for students. Next Gen Personal Finance estimates that only 3% of students in the state are required to take a personal finance course to graduate, one of the lowest rates in the nation. Texas and Nevada also sit at 3%, while Washington and Idaho are at 2%. Alaska, Hawaii, California, Arizona, New Mexico and the District of Columbia are all at 1% or lower.
Pritchard Spear said that this course can be life-changing for students.
“If I had this in middle school, I think my whole life would be different,” she said. “It’s a precious thing and we really ought to be offering it (in schools).”
The Banking Club was a one-off — it was all volunteer work and community-funded — but both Pritchard Spear and DeForest hope that the club’s success encourages school districts in the Tri-Lakes to re-evaluate their curricula.
“We want to get this stuff back into the schools, get this a part of a math program,” DeForest said. “That’s the whole idea.”
