Posted 7:29 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013
Local high school students will compete with other students across the state, and possibly the nation, using their consumer knowledge.
By UW-L student Breanna Levine
Local high school students will have the opportunity to compete with other students across the state, and possibly the nation, using their consumer knowledge.
With the help of UW-La Crosse Upward Bound Director Kate Oganowski and It Make$ Cents! Financial Literacy Coordinator Amanda Gasper, the LifeSmarts program has come to the La Crosse community.
LifeSmarts, a program from the National Consumers League (NCL), is an educational opportunity that prepares 6th-12th graders to enter the real world as smart adult consumers. Participants form teams, headed by a coach, that will train and put their consumer knowledge to the test. Local teams compete with teams across the state on five key topic areas: consumer rights and responsibilities, personal finance, health and safety, technology and the environment.
Gasper learned about the LifeSmarts program at a money and credit course put on by the National Institute of Financial and Economic Literacy in Madison.
“Bill Wilcox, the president of CBM Credit Education Foundation Inc., was a speaker and offered to grant the buzzer gaming system used for LifeSmart team practice to any non-profit organizations who sets up a student team in their community,” says Gasper. “I couldn’t believe my ears and I thought to myself, ‘This is something the La Crosse School District needs to be a part of!’”
Gasper introduced the program to Oganowski, who took on the project. Oganowski has enrolled eight students from five different high schools in the area to compete in the unique consumer challenge. The students learn and test their knowledge using daily quizzes, five questions each, provided by the LifeSmarts website.
The knowledge teams gain from this competition won’t just help them win, but it will also teach them what it means to be smart adult consumers in the real world. By focusing on issues such as personal finance and consumer responsibilities, participants will get a better understanding of how to spend money wisely and know what responsibilities they will have when they are adults.
“My hope is that this is the start of something connective. Something that will trigger interest and spread like rapid-fire through our community,” says Gasper. “To build the desire among young people to be an active part in making this world a better place. This can be accomplished by awareness, knowledge, responsibility and working together for the greater good of a team, a community, a state and our country.”
The La Crosse LifeSmarts team will compete against other teams online until Feb. If the team does well enough, it will compete in an in-person statewide competition in Madison on Feb. 28, 2014. If the team can win first or second place in the statewide competition, it will head to the National LifeSmarts Championship in Orlando on April 26-29, 2014.
Local high school students will have the opportunity to compete with other students across the state, and possibly the nation, using their consumer knowledge.
With the help of UW-La Crosse Upward Bound Director Kate Oganowski and It Make$ Cents! Financial Literacy Coordinator Amanda Gasper, the LifeSmarts program has come to the La Crosse community.
LifeSmarts, a program from the National Consumers League (NCL), is an educational opportunity that prepares 6th-12th graders to enter the real world as smart adult consumers. Participants form teams, headed by a coach, that will train and put their consumer knowledge to the test. Local teams compete with teams across the state on five key topic areas: consumer rights and responsibilities, personal finance, health and safety, technology and the environment.
Gasper learned about the LifeSmarts program at a money and credit course put on by the National Institute of Financial and Economic Literacy in Madison.
“Bill Wilcox, the president of CBM Credit Education Foundation Inc., was a speaker and offered to grant the buzzer gaming system used for LifeSmart team practice to any non-profit organizations who sets up a student team in their community,” says Gasper. “I couldn’t believe my ears and I thought to myself, ‘This is something the La Crosse School District needs to be a part of!’”
Gasper introduced the program to Oganowski, who took on the project. Oganowski has enrolled eight students from five different high schools in the area to compete in the unique consumer challenge. The students learn and test their knowledge using daily quizzes, five questions each, provided by the LifeSmarts website.
The knowledge teams gain from this competition won’t just help them win, but it will also teach them what it means to be smart adult consumers in the real world. By focusing on issues such as personal finance and consumer responsibilities, participants will get a better understanding of how to spend money wisely and know what responsibilities they will have when they are adults.
“My hope is that this is the start of something connective. Something that will trigger interest and spread like rapid-fire through our community,” says Gasper. “To build the desire among young people to be an active part in making this world a better place. This can be accomplished by awareness, knowledge, responsibility and working together for the greater good of a team, a community, a state and our country.”
The La Crosse LifeSmarts team will compete against other teams online until Feb. If the team does well enough, it will compete in an in-person statewide competition in Madison on Feb. 28, 2014. If the team can win first or second place in the statewide competition, it will head to the National LifeSmarts Championship in Orlando on April 26-29, 2014.