On February 20, 2019, Champion Credit Union hosted Mad City Money™, a hands-on financial simulation designed to give youth a taste of the real world, at Tuscola High School. During this all-day event, sophomore students were provided a persona, complete with an occupation, salary, spouse and child, student loan debt, credit card debt, and medical insurance payments, and instructed to determine their monthly expenditures based on these assigned attributes.
To make the simulation more realistic, President and CEO of Champion Credit Union, Jake Robinson dealt random expenses, such as car or appliance repairs, as well as random profits, such as lottery winnings, to the students.
This experiential learning process provided the students with valuable insight into balancing their financial needs, budgeting, and differentiating between wants and needs, that they can take with them into adulthood.
Lori Chappell, Champion Credit Union’s Business Development Manager, led this simulation and states, “As a former educator and personal finance teacher, I have witnessed the desperate need for financial literacy in our schools. It is essential that we equip our youth with basic tools to help them gain financial wellness. Mad City Money is a fantastic real-world simulation and I am thrilled with the result of the collaboration between Champion Credit Union and Tuscola High School.”
Champion Credit Union is committed to providing financial education to Western North Carolina and its youth, and there is no doubt that there will be plans for additional financial simulations in the future.
