Project Teen Money

Financial education has been making headlines due to the high debt-to-income ratios that led to the 2008 recession. Especially concerning is the growth of student loans, which are the second-largest source of household indebtedness, after mortgages, according to netwallet.com.  

$2 billion Summit Credit Union, Madison, Wis., is responding to concerns about young adult indebtedness and also fulfilling its commitment to financial literacy. Using its in-school branches, the CU is reaching out to high school and middle school students before they take on their first student loans with a program called Project Teen Money.

"I think there's more and more recognition that young adults need the financial education and financial literacy before they go off to college," says CUES member Kimberly Frederickson, Summit CU’s VP/ financial education and business development. It's also “a significant part of our commitment to the community we serve, to our members, and just our mission as a financial cooperative."

Project Teen Money is a scholarship competition based on the concepts of saving, spending and giving. Teenagers who are or become members of Summit CU are eligible to enter the competition by submitting three videos on the project's three core concepts, with the chance to win a $2,500 scholarship.

Summit CU's adult-aimed Project Money features four members who compete to change their financial habits. According to CUES member Amy Crowe, Summit CU’s marketing supervisor and financial specialist, Project Teen Money is a way to re-design the original program, helping students form good habits before entering an adult world of financial obligations and pitfalls.

"Fewer people are paying attention to their money, and financial education is critical in stopping bad habits from forming. We wanted to offer kids access to understanding money early on," Crowe says. "The teen videos are very specifically about how and why to save. How do you become a savvy consumer? We try to set them up for success and let them know that we're a resource."

As Summit CU looked at re-tooling adult Project Money, making the program an accessible, social, word-of-mouth campaign was one of the top priorities.

"We know that students are much more likely to listen to one another than they are to an adult," Frederickson says. "We wanted to transform Project Money into peer-to-peer financial education."

After working in two Madison, Wis., high schools over the past three years, Summit CU was looking to better understand and expand its teen market. According to CUES member Jamie Bay, Summit CU marketing manager, Project Teen Money was a way to educate, but it was also an opportunity to expand the CU's reach and build its community, creating a set of ambassadors for Summit CU along the way.

"The student market is really new to us. We're getting experience and a whole different perspective. They're educating us in terms of how they feel about managing their money and what's relevant to them," Bay says. "We're just trying to connect with the students more and have them actually be the advocates for Summit Credit Union."

Another challenge Summit CU team members faced as they redesigned Project Money for teens was technical. Mobile capabilities and social media quickly became priorities as the CU expanded into high school communities.

"Technology is really where we've had to figure out how to hone in. We've changed quite a few things that we do in the in-school branches," says Sarah Campagna, a branch manager at one of Summit CU's high school locations. "We can be mobile, going to where the students are. We now have tablets; we can go into the cafeteria to show video and set up accounts. We're always looking for ways to reach them better."

Summit CU finished its first round of Project Teen Money this spring with new insights on its teen markets, a group of young Summit representatives, and 18 peer-to-peer financial education videos to be used in the future. Teen ambassadors, it seems, have become one of Summit CU's newest assets.

"They're pulling the educational content together in a way that's relevant, and (in a way) that resonates to that group," Bay says. "It's opened up our eyes. It taught me more about how we can push the boundaries in terms of marketing and communicating with this age group and how important it is to have a bit more fun with them."

Kait Vosswinkel was a CUES editorial intern this summer and now works for Wisconsin Public Television.

Videos by Sylvan Gu, a CUES video intern this summer and now a college freshman.