Making (sense of) money

From Dec. 3-17, eighth grade students in St. Mary Parish Schools will be getting jobs, possibly getting married or having kids, paying bills and making investments.
Well, at least for a day in a real-life simulation they will get the opportunity to take part in.
It's Finance Park time and eighth grade teachers across the parish, more especially those that teach social studies and math, have been preparing the students with teacher-led course materials explaining some of the ins and outs of finance.
“We have been doing this for at least 10 years for all eight grade students in St. Mary Parish public schools as well as the eighth grade students at Central Catholic High School,” Amber Monceaux, Social Studies Program Manager at St. Mary Parish Schools for grades 3-12, said.
“We rent this program from Junior Achievement New Orleans Region and we are so appreciative of the partnership we have with our community, local banks, school board personnel and the teachers that help us put this together. It is a really big project,” Monceaux said.
Students have been learning how interest rates work, both in savings accounts as well as loans and credit cards. They have tracked stocks and are learning about budgets.
This is to better prepare them for their day at Finance Park, but more importantly, for the world they will enter as adults.
“My favorite part is the questions you get, seeing the kids figure out ‘I have to actually do this one day!’ and seeing how proud they are of themselves when they pay all their bills and they support themselves,” Mario Stephens, eighth grade Louisiana history teacher from Berwick Junior High School said. “They learn so much here, I really like that.”
Finance Park helps middle school students build a foundation of intelligent, personal financial decision-making skills through an experiential, real-life simulation.
St. Mary Parish utilizes the Shannon Elem-entary School gym for the event.
When students arrive, students are broken into groups of six and placed with a mentor. Mentors are teachers from their school as well as volunteers from local banks and other organizations like the Morgan City Rotary Club and employees of the St. Mary Parish School Board.
Mentors help guide the students throughout the course on making budget decisions and sharing life experiences. They especially help in teaching students how to distinguish between needs and wants as well as the importance of having a savings.
Students are given a tablet that is programed with the finance park software. It will randomly assign each student a life scenario, including a job, salary, and family situation to use as the basis of their simulation experience.
Students will learn how to construct and adhere to a personal budget, including paying their housing, food, savings, transportation, entertainment, health care, maintenance and utilities, clothing and education bills.
“My favorite part today was getting to pick out how I want to live my life, getting my job and figuring out how to budget myself was more fun than I thought it would be,” Noah Castaneda, 8th grade student at Berwick Junior High School said.
“The main thing I learned was don’t overspend. Money you have left over, put it into savings, definitely,” Castaneda said.