St. Aloysius wins $10,000 to teach financial literacy to students

St. Aloysius students recently had a fun assembly where they learned they had won a $10,000 grant to learn about financial literacy. The award, the Jackson Charitable Foundation and Discovery Education, Cha-Ching Money Smart Kids Contest 2022, was given to St. Aloysius after they submitted a letter for consideration. The letter explained what they would do with the $10,000. Michelle Ziegler, a mother of three students, was the driving force behind entering the contest. She explains: “I learned of the contest in fall of 2019. I was at a “lunch and learn” for work hosted by the financial company Jackson. Our representative was talking about the Jackson Charitable Foundation and some of the free resources that were available there to educate kids on financial literacy. I checked out the website for personal reasons for ideas on how to start teaching financial literacy to my oldest daughter, Savannah, who just started 2nd grade at the time. And that’s where I saw the contest. Schools shut down in spring 2020 so I never pursued it during covid.” In their letter, St. Aloysius wrote, “We hope to achieve three main objectives through the initiatives described and budgeted below.” “The first goal is to provide students with education that incorporates all four pillars of financial literacy (earn, save, spend, and donate). As a school, we feel it’s important to help students understand the different uses that we can give to money. We have separated the initiatives out based on the four pillars and will remind students throughout the year how each are related through the use of the Cha-Ching characters and website materials. “ The letter continues,  “Our second goal in utilizing the grant funds is to provide students with real life experiences to implement what they’ve learned. There are several opportunities outlined below. Some examples are: opening and operating a student savings account, field trips to the bank to deposit into the account, earning money for their savings through creating and selling crafts, and donating to others that serve our students and community.  The last goal is to continue to provide financial literacy education for students beyond this school year and make the most use of the funds. This will be achieved through the investment of creating the savings account. We hope to continue the student activities of earning and saving for the account, educating students on the balance, and involving them in making choices of future donations and purchases for their benefit and for that of the school.  The computers to access financial literacy education resources online and the investment of library furniture will also serve the financial education of future students.” In addition to winning $10,000 for their own program, St. Aloysius won $1000 to donate to a charity of their choice. They chose Sauk Prairie Area Food Pantry. The Food Pantry was so appreciative they sent a hand-written Thank You note. The kids at the assembly were treated to some hands-on activities, and even played some trivia about money.