Financially Savvy Teens Tout Skills in Money Bee

By Jacqueline Molik Ghosen

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Teams from Clarence High School, Sacred Heart Academy and Harkness Career & Technical Center have placed first, second and third, respectively, in “MoneySKILL® Mania,” a financial literacy competition for high school students sponsored by the University at Buffalo School of Management and M&T Bank.

Jerome Trankle of Clarence High School was the highest-scoring individual student and was awarded a notebook computer. John Kuloszewski of Harkness Career & Technical Center was the second-highest scoring individual and Stephanie Kong of Clarence High School placed third.

Members of the first-place team, William Harrington, Stephanie Kong and Jerome Trankle of Clarence High School, each received $250.

Teachers Heather Hartmann of Clarence High School, Kenneth McKinnon of Sacred Heart Academy and Beverly Mintz of Harkness Career & Technical Center coached the winning teams.

More than 80 students representing 15 private, public and charter high schools participated. They are: Bennett High School, Clarence High School, Depew High School, Frewsburg Central, School, Harkness Career & Technical Center, Holy Angels Academy, Lake Shore Senior High School, Lancaster High School, Niagara Wheatfield High School, North Collins Jr./Sr. High School, Orchard Park High School, Sacred Heart Academy, Springville-Griffith Institute, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and Western New York Maritime Charter School.

The event was designed to increase awareness of MoneySKILL, a free, interactive Internet curriculum designed to educate students to make informed financial decisions on a variety of personal finance issues, including income, money management, spending, credit, saving and investing.

MoneySKILL was developed by Lewis Mandell, professor emeritus of finance and managerial economics in the UB School of Management, in collaboration with the American Financial Services Association Education Foundation.

Tests of the financial knowledge of teenagers consistently show poor performance. For example, on the 2008 Jump$tart Survey of Financial Literacy among High School Students, a biennial survey of 12th graders, participants answered an average of only 48.3 percent of the test questions correctly. Over the past 10 years, scores have ranged from a high of 57 percent to the 2008 low of 48.3 percent—all within the range of a failing grade.

M&T Bank Corporation, founded in 1856, is one of the top 20 commercial bank holding companies in the nation, with $69 billion in assets and more than 750 branch offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C. More information is available at www.mtb.com.

The Wall Street Journal has ranked the UB School of Management No. 9 in the nation among schools with strong regional recruiting bases. In addition, BusinessWeek has ranked the school as one of the country's top 5 business schools for the fastest return on MBA investment, and Forbes has cited it as one of the best business schools in the U.S. for the return on investment it provides MBA graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit mgt.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.