The EverFi Financial Literacy Program, which aims to improve financial literacy among Wisconsin high schoolers, has received funding from Brookfield-based Spring Bank that has allowed expansion into three new schools.
Wauwatosa East, Wauwatosa West and Brookfield East high schools have joined the 85 schools that offer the program, which covers everything from college loans to credit cards to retirement accounts.
EverFi is a 10-unit course with eight hours of interactive, web-based education. More than 13,000 high school students have used the tool statewide.
The EverFi program recently also received approval from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a “trusted resource” educational tool.
Spring Bank was one of the first sponsors of EverFi, beginning at Brookfield Central High School in 2011. It has now invested $21,000 in the program, and 20 other Wisconsin banks serve as sponsors. Students who participated in Spring Bank’s program in 2013-2014 improved their assessments by 22 percent after completing the course.
“Now that we have a significant amount of data that proves the program’s success, it was an easy decision to fund expanding the digital platform into more of our area high schools,” said David Schuelke, Spring Bank president. “For many of these kids, buying a car or borrowing money for college is already happening or soon will be, and we want to help better prepare them to realistically handle these real world financial challenges.”
“EverFi has helped my students lay a great foundation for their final projects in which they actually have a salary, buy a car, pay for housing and generally replicate what their financial situation might be as realistically as possible,” said Nick Heiting, business and personal finance teacher at Wauwatosa West High School. “Students like having the ability to go at their own pace and can easily go back over concepts they missed.”
