Project Teen Money
Issues Challenge To Local Young People
By Patricia Cazares,
age 16
The teen years are for
a lot of things. You can have fun, hang out with friends, and attend
school. But one of the most important things you can do is to learn
to manage your money and plan ahead for college. It’s crucial that
you start this process early.
There are a lot of
tools available online to help you do this. All you have to do is
Google: ‘Financial literacy for teens’ and a ton of resources
will come up. While working in the Free Press room, recently, I came
across a really interesting local story. It’s a useful tool for
kids offered right here in Dane County and it’s called “Project
Teen Money.”
This is a unique
challenge created by Summit to help teenagers and young adults
achieve financial success. Students create three short videos meant
to inspire other young people to save, spend, and give back to the
community. The videos are between thirty and ninety seconds long. The
winner of the Project Teen Money challenge gets a $2,500 scholarship.
The other competitors each receive a $500 scholarship.
The 2014 videos are
posted online at
SummitCreditUnion.com/ProjectTeenMoney
.
The students are hoping for feedback from the community. You can log
on to the Summit website each month to cast your vote.
As we have written
about before on these pages, Summit has in-school branches at Madison
Memorial and Madison La Follette high schools. If you attend either
of these schools it is easy to stop by these Credit Union branches to
get advice or ask questions. From experience, I can tell you that
once you start to gather information about finances and savings, it
quickly becomes a very interesting subject. The Summit website is a
good place to start looking. But there are other really interesting
financial literacy sites out there.
Remember, if you plan
to go to college and get ahead in life, it’s important to start
young. It’s important to make learning financial skills part of
your teen life. It will pay off in the long run.
|