Week Two

Thursday I had my second week of Fifth Third's Young Bankers Club for this year. This is the third year for this program and I have been involved since it started. Basically it's a financial literacy program that runs for 11 weeks, once a week for an hour in a Cincinnati Public Schools classroom. Fifth Third has expanded the program to several other cities since the first year and it has been exciting for me to be part of that growth.
This year I am at Parham Elementary and I have a really great class of 17 students. It has been a lot of fun so far. On Thursday we had an "Unlimited Shopping Spree" where the students go to eight different "stores" around the room and buy whatever they want. An image of each item and its value were listed on an index card that they could select. They didn't have any kind of spending limit, so they went CRAZY. They were so excited about the idea of getting a plasma TV, Hummer H2, a house, a new outfit, a bedroom set. A few were asking if they were going to actually get these "for real" so I had to explain that this was just a game and they didn't get to keep their purchases. We use this exercise then to help them understand that things cost money, you have to eventually pay for them in the real world, and there is an opportunity cost for everything we buy. In later classes we'll build on some of the ideas we learned this week and refer back to this class often.
As I go through the rest of our 11weeks, I'll be sure to keep you all updated. I can always count on some funny stories and profound experiences.