Start Community Bank in New Haven, Conn., is reaching out to teach financial awareness to at-risk students through their four-part “Loot Camp.”
It’s a real-world approach to help students understand the basics of financial management. Bank SVP Lynn Smith started a recent session by asking what Larry King, MC Hammer and Ulysses S. Grant all had in common: “They all went bankrupt,” she told the students recently.
Many students in the course don’t understand how to use credit or a checking account, so Smith focuses on teaching students the importance of saving.
“It’s about knowing the difference between want and need—knowing what money really is,” Smith told the Connecticut Mirror.