News : Financial Literacy Fair

Grayson Gifford of CPU MS contemplating her final budget after having spoken with a U of I CCU rep

Cross Hollandsworth of CPU speaks with Dick Wells of Belle Plaine about his budget numbers

Spencer Bensley, Corissa Hite, Alysa Casey, Kearstin Woods, Jordan Guyer and Angie Houtakker

The middle school Financial Literacy Fair was held on April 5th at the Vinton Skate Center.

This event was sponsored by the University of Iowa Community Credit Union as well as the Workplace Learning Connection.

The CU 4 Reality Financial Literacy Fair is the culmination of a year's worth of financial study and career exploration for area 7th or 8th graders. During the year students learn how to keep a check registry, how credit cards work, how to make a budget and the importance of saving money. They also explored careers based on their skills and interests. From this exploration they choose a career and receive a monthly paycheck for that career to use at the Financial Literacy Fair.

During the Financial Literacy Fair students make a series of decisions about how to spend their money. Transportation, Housing, Insurance and Food are just a few of the booths they visit. Just like in real life students experience unexpected bills or windfalls at the Wheel of Destiny. At the end of the fair they meet with a credit union financial counselor to see how they put their financial knowledge to work at the fair.

At this career education event, 7th graders from Center Point-Urbana and Vinton Shellsburg and 8th grade Belle Plaine students attended. The event is constructed to go hand-in-hand with the career education and financial literacy curriculum taught in middle school and compliments the 8th grade I Have A Plan from the Department of Education.

The Workplace Learning Connection hosts the fair along with the help of various financial institutions, using area volunteers to man the tables where students go and ‘spend’ their monthly salary on living expenses such as transportation, housing, student loans, utilities, food, clothing, insurance, temptations, and then put some of their earnings into a savings account. After making spending decisions, they meet with a member of the credit union to discuss how their budgeting worked out and get advice on what they need to do to keep afloat (such as, ‘trade in the Escalade for an Escort; or ‘do you really need those Hawkeye tickets???’)

This event is a great learning experience for the students, who end up coming to a quick realization that there are monthly costs to living the lifestyle they want!