High School Students Who Received Personal Finance Training Must Now Develop Campaigns to Educate Peers

The students were selected as part of the statewide ‘RI-FI High’ pilot program

May 10, 2007 – Sixteen teenagers (mostly Juniors) are participating in a new statewide program that trains promising Rhode Island students in “real world” money skills.  The Rhode Island Financial High Program, or “RI-FI High,” was launched this spring to educate high school students across the state about the importance of personal financial skills.

The program featured a one-day, intense training session, which students participated in last Friday at the Smithfield campus of Fidelity Investments, that provided expert training in key personal financial areas.  Program trainers included Chris Zarcaro of Fidelity Investments, Allan Fung of MetLife Insurance, Professor Joan Gray Anderson and Claudia Kerbel of the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Personal Financial Education, and Leigea Landry, CPA of LGC&D, P.C.

Students are now in the process of creating a public awareness campaign to communicate their newfound knowledge of the importance of budgeting, savings and investments, credit and debt, and insurance to their peers at their high schools.  Friday’s training session also equipped them with several potential marketing methods or tactics to use as they begin to plan their campaign and spread the word to classmates.  Each of the eight student pairs participating in the program will be provided with a $200 budget and tickets to a June PawSox game to be used to support their campaigns.  High School peer campaigns will launch toward the end of May, early June or at the start of the school year this fall.

“This unique financial education program has teens impact their peers in their own words, in their own way,” said Jim Hedemark, executive director of the Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition, the non-profit that administers the program to students statewide.  “I feel like we just hired sixteen ambitious marketing executives.  I am looking forward to highly creative campaigns in the eight high schools.”  Hedemark also served as a training instructor.  The URI Center for Personal Financial Education assisted RI Jump$tart with organizing the program.

Schools involved in the RI-FI High program include Burrillville High School, Coventry High School, Davies Career & Technical School of Lincoln, the Lincoln School of Providence, Lincoln High School, Pilgrim High School in Warwick, Smithfield High School, and Warwick Veterans Memorial High School.

Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio, a promoter of the program states, “Many times as adults, we struggle to relate to high school students on personal financial topics.  That is why I am excited about the RI-FI High program that trains teenage peer leaders to encourage their classmates to make wise financial choices both now and as they continue into adulthood.”

Last December, the RI Jump$tart Coalition received $10,000 to develop RI-FI High from the National Council on Economic Education via funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Excellence in Economic Education program, a grant secured with the support of U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

Upon securing the grant last December, Reed stated, “The RI Jump$tart Coalition has helped provide hundreds of young Rhode Islanders with the tools to prepare for their economic future.  I am pleased that they have received this federal funding to provide quality financial education to our high school age students.  These young adults will soon be facing credit card offers, bills, and other expenses.It is essential that they have an understanding of their finances and how the choices that they make now and in the years to come will affect the rest of their lives.”

The program is also supported by matching funds from Fidelity Investments, the MetLife Foundation, the Pawtucket Red Sox Baseball Club, Inc., and the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants.  Chris Zarcaro, a director of regional retirement consulting at Fidelity, spoke to students during the training day."  As a financial services professional, I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my time with so many bright students and challenge them to think differently about how they save and invest their earnings.  As a parent, I am proud to be a part of a program that gets young people thinking and talking about the importance of planning for their financial futures."

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