Brockton Credit Union is one of the sponsors of the April 24 “Credit for Life” fair for Brockton High School students. Brockton Credit Union Senior Vice President Leo MacNeil first brought the fair to Massachusetts last year.
Fifty-five percent of all college students and 7 percent of all high school students have a major credit card, and 25 percent of those have more than $3,000 in credit card debt. Hoping to curb that problem and produce better-educated young adults, Consumer Credit Counseling Service and the Credit Executives Association of New England developed the “Credit for Life” fair.
The interactive, one-day seminar held at Brockton’s Massasoit Community College teams students from Brockton High School with local business owners from different industries in the area. This year’s fair will be held on April 24. After receiving a financial profile for a person aged 25 with figures on income, debt and savings, students visit various booths including housing, transportation, nutrition, insurance, credit and savings to develop a budget. A fun booth is also included as part of the process, tempting students to purchase cell phones, vacations, VCRs and other luxury items
“You can’t preach to high school kids about credit,” said Leo MacNeil, senior vice president of Brockton Credit Union, which participates in the event. “First of all, it’s boring, and second of all, they don’t want to be preached to. Because this fair is highly interactive, it becomes competitive and they want to make it work.”
MacNeil first discovered the need for credit counseling among young adults during annual trips to nearby Stonehill College to talk with graduating students about managing student loans. He found that while the students were appreciative of the information, they also wanted instruction on managing credit card debt.
Looking for a way to meet this need, MacNeil saw a video of the “Credit for Life” fair being run in Rhode Island by its founder, Kristin DiSpirito of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern New England in Warwick, R.I. He volunteered for the 2000 fair and finally brought it to Brockton in 2001.
‘Interactive Nature’
The program began after DiSpirito worked for three years with the Credit Executives Association of Southern New England on providing teacher training for instruction to students about credit issues. Instead of continuing to go through teachers, DiSpirito decided to create a program that would be used directly by students.
“The teachers at Brockton High School think the program is a great way to give the students a hands-on look at money management and credit,” said DiSpirito. “Although they can teach them a lot in the classroom, when it comes to putting together a budget, the interactive nature of the fair is much better.”
After asking DiSpirito to bring the program to Brockton, MacNeil also recruited state Treasurer Shannon O’Brien’s office to work on the fair’s steering committee.
“We’re always looking at new ideas for financial education, and we look at this program as one that helps target a specific life stage,” said Christine Morrell, director of financial education for the Treasurer’s Office.
Last year, more than 200 of the 1,000 students in Brockton High School’s graduating class participated in the program. Donna Burrell, head of the high school’s business education department, helps to pinpoint students best suited to attending the fair.
“We look at the types of courses that we have in the department and we try to match the courses and the students who are taking those courses to see who might benefit most,” said Burrell. “Students involved in banking, marketing, accounting and law classes are the ones most often targeted to attend the fair.”
Enthusiasm from students has been overwhelming, said Burrell, in part because of the presentation made and also because many of the students have heard good feedback from friends who attended last year.
The fair also depends on the 80 volunteers who help to man the booths and run the event throughout the day. Past sponsors include Abington Savings Bank, the New England College of Finance, Bernie and Phyl’s Furniture, De Santis Chevrolet and Neighborhood Housing Services. In addition, the fair is funded by various financial institutions in the area as well as the Credit Data New England Foundation.
According to Morrell, the hope is that following this year’s fair, plans will begin for expansion into other South Shore towns that could include Abington, Plymouth, Bridgewater, Dedham and Canton.
“What we’re trying to do is invite other schools to come and check out the fair to see if they would be interested and able to fit it into their curriculum for their business students,” said Morrell.
Morrell added that the challenge in expanding the fair to other cities is recruiting the volunteers in each town and raising the money to fund the project. MacNeil said both Durfee High School in Fall River and New Bedford High School in New Bedford have shown interest in creating “Credit for Life” fairs in their own communities.
The program has been a remarkable success, said MacNeil, and was definitely needed because the lack of education in credit is evident in the adult credit counseling sessions held at the Brockton Credit Union.
“Due to cutbacks and other focuses in schools, many of these kids no longer have home economics classes that teach them about things like using credit,” said MacNeil. “You can be bright in English and history and math, but if you don’t know how to pay your bills, you’re going to be in a sorry state.”
