Start Bank "adopts" Columbus Family Academy 8th grade class

[Lynn Smith]

The Christopher Columbus Family Academy at 255 Blatchley Street in Fair Haven is designed for its students to have hands-on experiences. Paper airplanes and pinwheels are art pieces incorporated into the walls of the building, which allows students to measure angles.  Need to learn about north, south, east and west?  Just identify the four trade wind sculptures that will help you find the way.  Want to become an astronomer?  Begin by searching for Cassiopeia in the mosaic of the entrance floor. 

So when Dr. Abie Benitez, principal of this dual language program school of about 500 students, and Mrs. Cortney Costa, math teacher for the 8^th grade class due to graduate in June, wanted a ‘hands-on, real-life’ partnership from a local business, Start Community Bank answered the call.  Using curriculum ideas culled from the American Bankers Association’s programs as well as proven winners from our years of teaching “Loot Camp”, three separate lessons were designed.  We timed the start of our program with the national “Teach Children to Save” Day on April 24, 2012. 

Before a young adult starts a savings program, sometimes a little attitude adjustment needs to take place.  So Lesson #1, called “Survivor Island”, is an exercise in which the students have to help a family of four survive four months on a deserted island.  The goal is for the family to ultimately win $25,000.  With a budget of only $1,000, the students have to decide what the family needs to survive vs what the family wants to bring – so food vs an iPad, fresh drinking water vs toilet paper, matches vs a radio.  This exercise then leads to great discussions about the decisions, and sometimes sacrifices, that need to happen to make a disciplined budgeting and saving program a success. 

Lesson #2, called “Payback Time”, deals with the consequences of decisions:  a borrowed  library card leads to lost books and fines, an iPod loaned and damaged by the dog leads to a $220 replacement cost;  $25 given to a friend and not paid back in time leads to no equipment deposit and therefore no spot on the summer soccer team.  This lesson then leads to a discussion of peer pressure, the power of advertising, and the consequences of check cashing fees, overdraft fees, too good to be true offers, bad credit decisions, poor credit histories. 

Lesson #3, scheduled for May 9^th and 10^th,  is the real life exercise of being an informed bank account consumer – understanding terms and conditions, picking the right account, filling out an application, writing a check, completing a deposit ticket, operating an ATM and/or debit card, and  balancing a checking account. 

The program will end with a field trip to the Grand Avenue Branch of Start Community Bank on May 17th, where the students will get a behind-the-scenes tour of branch operations and have a chance to interview bank personnel about their job duties and career opportunities at the bank.  Each student will also receive a $5 coupon good for the opening deposit for a savings account – the start, it is hoped, of their college savings fund.  As the bank offers an Early Start savings account with no minimum balance requirement, no monthly fees, and an opening deposit of $1 that earns a current APY of 1.00%, there is great incentive for the students to put their classroom learning into practical use so that they can manage their own savings program and bank account. 

Just outside the front entrance of the Columbus Family Academy there is a sculpture of one of Christopher Columbus’ crew members up in a crow’s nest looking off in the distance.   We at Start Community Bank like to think that the graduating class that we have adopted is looking to their future – a future that includes the ability, and the passion, to have a lifelong positive relationship with money.   We are honored and humbled to share this partnership with Dr. Benitez, Mrs. Costa, and our 8^th grade students. 

For more information about Start Community Bank, visit www.startbank.com.  For more information about the “Teach Children to Save” program, follow this link:

http://www.aba.com/ABAEF/tcts.htm