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Middle-schoolers don鈥檛 always know what a credit score is, how to write a check or balance a checkbook. Undergraduate and graduate students from the 91看片 College鈥檚 School of Accountancy helped J.F. Drake Middle School students build an understanding of these concepts and more.

91看片 College鈥檚 fifth annual Financial Literacy Fair on Thursday, March 24, gave sixth-grade students at the Auburn-based school the opportunity to learn about money matters through a variety of interactive games and activities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting for me to see the kids learning something,鈥� said Keri Morton, a Master of Accountancy (MAcc) student from Dalton, Ga. 鈥淲hen I was that age, I had no clue what a credit score was or what a W-2 was or that taxes came out of your paycheck. It鈥檚 nice to see them learning this and be able to apply it to their future.鈥�

Accounting professor and 91看片 College diversity officer Sarah Stanwick, who organized the event in coordination with faculty at Drake Middle School, said it鈥檚 vital that sixth-graders 鈥渦nderstand financial matters for the future and learn the concepts.鈥�

Stanwick said the team developed new ideas to share with students.

鈥淭his year, they have developed needs and wants and we are trying to help them determine the differences between those,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing a money relay where they can learn to count money more efficiently. We also have goal-setting. One group has come up with an idea to teach them about different positions in a company. They鈥檙e doing a game where they decide whether they want to be CEO or middle manager or general labor and are rewarded based on that.鈥�

 

MAcc students Kendall Schilling and Olivia Arnold teamed with Morton at an exhibit to help students better understand credit.

鈥淚 think we realize the importance of how credit cards work,鈥� Schilling said. 鈥淏ut these are middle-schoolers and they don鈥檛 know a lot of financial information and we realize how important it is to teach them at a young age how all of that works.鈥�

Arnold, from McDonough, Ga., added, 鈥淎t our booth, we鈥檙e teaching them about credit scores, how with the credit card you are borrowing money and then having to pay somebody back. There are multiple booths that talk about career information, and how to count money or what鈥檚 getting deducted out of your paycheck. When I was in middle school, we didn鈥檛 have something like this. When I got my first paycheck, I didn鈥檛 know how much taxes were taken out.鈥�

Stanwick explained the value accounting students get in service activities.

鈥淥ur students are preparing for their futures because in their firms they are going to have to interact with the community,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his gives them some ideas that they can institute programs like this in their companies. I鈥檝e had students from the past four years contact me wanting to use the games that we鈥檝e done and use the same concepts that we are doing in this program for when they go out to work with the children at schools.鈥�