Grand Rapids Business Journal
Alexandra Crow works with Junior Achievement in the classroom to enhance financial literacy.
Courtesy Audrey Hutchinson
One United Bank of Michigan employee is on a mission to ensure children understand the value of money before they grow older.
Alexandra Crow, relationship manager for United Bank of Michigan, is volunteering with Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes (JAMGL). JA is an organization that uses volunteers to teach children in grades K-12 about jobs, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
Laura Lutterbeck, district director and chief marketing officer for Junior Achievement of Southwest Michigan and Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes, said JAMGL was started in 1955 and now covers 50 counties in West Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. JA has been around for more than 100 years.
To bridge the gap, what Aliche would do when she was teaching was gamify financial education for her students in one game, they d assume adult personas and practice paying bills with Monopoly money. On those days, she d invite her students parents to come in and play, as well. What your child is learning, also you, too, can learn in a way that maintains your dignity, she said. Invite those parents into the classroom.
There are also ways to take the conversation home. I think you can give assignments that involve asking parents financial questions, said Dan Otter, executive director of 403(b)wise, an education advocacy service, adding that those could be about parents first jobs, or how their families handled money.
Opinion: Help prepare young Texans for financial independence By Vincent Branch
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My financial education and that of many others came from on-the-job training and costly mistakes, but we have an opportunity to change the destiny of thousands of the next generation of Texans. Legislation is being considered that would help students learn about money, investing to grow and secure wealth, and navigating pitfalls in consumer credit. Our students would learn these lessons in school, rather than in the school of “hard knocks.”
Recently, I testified in Austin before the Texas Senate Education Committee in support of Senate Bill 1063. This bill has the potential to improve the economic prosperity of our state for decades to come and it can be a giant step forward in closing the financial literacy gap in our state. The bill adds a choice of either an economics course or a course consisting of two-thirds personal finance and one-third economics