Treasury official, Dan Iannicola, Jr. visits with students at the University of Rhode Island.
Contact: Jim Hedemark
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U.S. Treasury Official to Promote ABA Education Foundation's National “Get Smart About Credit Day” in Rhode Island
October 19, 2005 - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Education, Dan Iannicola, Jr. of the U.S. Department of the Treasury will visit Rhode Island on Thursday, October 20th, 2005 and will teach responsible credit usage lessons in college and high school classrooms with the assistance of General Treasurer, Paul J. Tavares and Rhode Island Bankers’ Association President, Bob Twomey.
On Get Smart About Credit Day, volunteer bankers across the country will teach students how to budget, use credit cards responsibly and build a positive payment history. Bankers use lessons and activities from the ABAEF Get Smart About Credit resource kit.Last year, half a million students learned how to use credit responsibly from volunteer bankers.
“Rhode Island is proud to welcome Dan Iannicola, Jr. back to the Ocean State, especially on this important national occasion that encourages young people to learn how to build and protect their credit,” says General Treasurer Tavares.
Representing the Rhode Island Bankers’ Association, President Robert Twomey, states, “As a banker, credit history is so central to many decisions we make that affect people’s dreams.”He continues, “As a father, I want young people to understand how positive financial decisions made early in life can lead to a lifetime of financial independence and opportunity.”
Iannicola and Twomey will be guest lecturers in a personal finance class (closed to public) of university senior-level students at the University of Rhode Island, Quinn Hall Room 211, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
Iannicola and Tavares will be guest lecturers at a National Academy of Finance class (closed to public) at West Warwick high school, Room 122 from 12:50 p.m. to 1:37 p.m.
Get Smart Day is sponsored by the American Bankers Association Education Foundation, a non-profit committed to developing and providing education programs that lead to financial literacy. The resource kit supports national curriculum standards established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education, and the Jump$tart Coalition's National Standards in Personal Finance.
The Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition (founded in 2004) is an coalition of dozens of Ocean State and New England region businesses, community organizations, educational institutions, government agencies and officers. The coalition¹s mission is “to increase the financial literacy of individuals in Rhode Island.” The coalition's website is www.rijumpstart.org
In 2006, for the first time, Rhode Island high school seniors participated in the national Jump$tart Coalition personal financial literacy survey that measures teenagers¹ knowledge of personal financial literacy topics. Rhode Island high school seniors answered 48.8% of the questions correctly. The national average was 52.4%. For more details on the national survey, please click here.
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