Getting Ready for “March Smartness”

(FOX Providence) - Everyone knows that the rising cost of a college education is leading many college graduates to leave school with huge debt burdens.

The Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition has developed a range of financial literacy programs to give students the information they need to be smart consumers.

One of those efforts is the Rhode Island LifeSmarts competition, also known as “March Smartness”, a competition between teams from area schools find out who has the best consumer skills.

Peter Kerwin from the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority, joined The Rhode Show to talk about the program.

How are you involved in March Smartness?

This year, CollegeBoundfund is serving as the lead sponsor for the March Smartness competition. In the past, we’ve been involved with this program and now we are stepping up to make sure that we are helping prepare young people and arming them with the research and critical thinking skills they will need to succeed—in their higher education careers, as members of the work force, and when they are out there living on their own and looking to start a family.

The LifeSmarts Competition focuses on five key consumer areas—personal finance, technology, environment, health and safety, and consumer rights and responsibilities. The event is open to teenage teams from schools and youth organizations throughout Rhode Island. Teams need to have an adult coach and they can register at www.lifesmarts.org . The play begins online and the players can take multiple quizzes prior to the final qualifying round, which is composed of sixty questions. Once that final online round is complete in early March, the final teams to be considered for the state competition will be chosen.

What happens with the state competition?

This is why we call it March Smartness. The teams will compete in a live, quiz-bowl format at the State House with brackets and buzzers. The last team standing claims the prestigious Consumer Cup and earns the right to take part in the annual LifeSmarts National Championship which is being held in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Resort between April 24 and 27th.

This will be the sixth annual competition. North Providence High School has dominated, winning for the last two years of the program and the first two years, with Barrington High School briefly knocking them out of the winner’s circle in 2007.

It’s a great program that allows teenagers to learn and demonstrate their knowledge of the consumer skills they are going to need now and throughout their adult lives. It’s a great opportunity for CollegeBoundfund to support a financial literacy program which really helps make a difference in our state and increase awareness of just how important it is to give young people the information they need to make good decisions in their lives.