During the calendar year 2023, Southern Michigan Bank and Trust has made an investment in the amount of $7,945.00 to provide financial literacy education materials to preparatory students in their assessment area.
Southern Michigan Bank and Trust is committed to providing financial education resources to members of the community. Effective financial education is a vital component in the effort to reduce poverty and sustain a healthy, growing economy. While Southern Michigan Bank and Trust has made financial literacy education available to the broader community, they have specifically focused on middle and high school aged students. The objective is to help students become more prepared for the financial decisions they will make after high school, as those decisions can have a lasting impact on the remainder of their lives.
Program materials were also made available to parents of students, and to all deposit account holders at the institution. The investment dollars were directed to Banzai Inc, a provider of online financial literacy curriculum, with accompanying printed materials. The investment covered costs to provide software licenses to students, printed materials, and technical and educational support for teachers and students in the assessment area.
Many options exist for financial education teaching materials. Unfortunately, most of the options available do not engage students with interesting and relevant material that is based on the real world. The Banzai Financial Literacy Program teaches proven principles through real life scenarios, in an interactive virtual environment. Students are able to work at their own learning pace. Representatives from Southern Michigan Bank and Trust also made themselves available to provide in-class support to students working through the program.
