Students at Roosevelt High School were recognized for their participation in the Regional Bank Financial Scholars program. The students completed a web course that taught the basics of money management, and received certificates in an assembly that included remarks made by State Treasurer Clint Zweifel.
Zweifel, who hails from North County, feels that the program helps to not only lay a financial foundation for the present, but also teaches the benefits of making good choices for the future:
“Those choices just aren’t about finance, but those choice are about lifestyle choices and decisions that they can make now that affect outcomes later in their lives," he says. "On a day to day basis they’re standing out there going to school, going to work, whatever they might be doing they can have a long term effect on their lives by making good decisions now.”
The state of Missouri is one of four in the nation that requires students complete a semester in financial literacy. This is the program’s second year in the St. Louis Public School system.
Over 600 high school students across the district participated in the program, which is administered through a web game created by technology companyEverFi.
He later remarked that the program gives tools of both knowledge and motivation for students: “My belief is that America’s economy works best when all of us have those tools of financial literacy, so providing that in the school system, especially if it’s not happening at home, is really, really important. I think the long term effects of this also is to motivate students, to let them know that they have choices.” The program has been provided to St. Louis Public Schools for free courtesy of Regions Bank.