Ninth District School in Covington has been awarded $10,000 from Fifth Third Bank National Association for its Young Bankers Club program, its signature financial education program for fifth-grade students.
It was one of 13 similar grants made across Fifth Third’s service area.
“The grants will enable these organizations to purchase and incorporate more tools into their educational curriculums, which will boost technological access in the communities they serve while enabling more students to gain valuable financial knowledge through the Young Bankers Club.”
First offered in 2004, the Fifth Third Young Bankers Club was redesigned earlier this year as a digital program to deliver an accommodating experience for virtual or classroom learning. It is compatible with multiple platforms, including laptops and desktop computers, and mobile devices, including tablets. It is offered to schools and community organizations at no cost.
“We are thrilled to be able to make funds available to community schools and groups who have students actively engaged in our digital YBC program,” said Stefanie Steward-Young, chief corporate social responsibility officer for Fifth Third Bank.
“The grants will enable these organizations to purchase and incorporate more tools into their educational curriculums, which will boost technological access in the communities they serve while enabling more students to gain valuable financial knowledge through the Young Bankers Club.”
Schools and/or community organizations receiving grants included schools in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Floridan, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
The new Young Bankers Club® digital format features a comprehensive curriculum that meets national and state educational standards for fifth-grade mathematics. Each lesson in the eight-unit curriculum, which is presented through a game, provides a unique, engaging approach to financial literacy that helps students apply their knowledge gradually as they work toward more complex scenarios. The program incorporates different facets of banking, while clearly identifying relevant math standards within each unit and outlining what students should know and how to use the information.
The most innovative feature in the digital format is the introduction of the 10-year-old character Maximillion Money™, the president of Young Bankers Club® and the richest kid in America.
Maximillion Money guides the participants and his friends on a journey that takes them to the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. Mint, other financial industry landmarks and to a Fifth Third financial center. Students discover hidden clues, win rewards and badges, unlock avatars, advance to new levels and adventures each week, take weekly trivia quizzes to test their knowledge and challenge themselves to be first on the class leaderboard.
Each lesson represents a level that focuses on one of the following aspects of personal finance:
• Budgeting.
• Banking and payment methods.
• Overspending and lending to others.
• Borrowing money.
• Jobs and income.
• Saving and investing.
• Protect your money – risk and insurance.
Young Bankers Club® is part of Fifth Third’s L.I.F.E. (Lives Improved Through Financial Empowerment®) program, which delivers financial learning opportunities to people at all ages and stages of life.
Fifth Third Bank
