BERLIN – Forty students at Stephen Decatur High School (SDHS) were honored last Friday for participating in and completing the EverFi Financial Literacy program.
In last week’s award ceremony, students in Kurt Marx’s classes received recognition by the Bank of Ocean City, which has sponsored the program at SDHS for five years.
Since the beginning of the semester, students have worked on the EverFi program both at school and at home, completing online courses that teach them financial literacy.
Bank of Ocean City Vice President Earl Conley shared with students the importance of budgeting needs and wants and planning for the future.
“This day and age, you are responsible for yourself,” he said. “Don’t listen to the media. Don’t listen to all the hype you hear about how the government is going to take care of you. It’s not going to happen. Personal responsibility is something you really have to grasp and understand.”
Through the EverFi program, students are tasked with completing and passing nine courses: savings, banking, payment types, credit scores, higher education, renting vs. owning, insurance and tax, consumer protection and investing.
Tenth-grade student Omar Omar said his favorite portion of the program was learning about loans.
“Other classes don’t really focus on things that we are actually going to use in life,” he said. “This one actually does.”
Student Kadena Snell said her new-found knowledge of banking, loans and stock will prepare her for the future.
“It will teach me how to work with money because I want to own my own business,” she said.
Blake Marshall, a ninth-grade student, said he will use lessons from the financial literacy course in the near future.
“When I want to buy a car, it will go towards helping manage my money and saving so I can get the right car I want,” he said.
Stephen Decatur Principal Tom Zimmer shared the value of knowing how to manage money.
“It’s important that you take this information and store it away somewhere because at some point you are going to want to buy a car, you are going to want to buy a house, you are going to have to figure out mortgage payments and you are going to have to figure out monthly bills,” he said.
Zimmer ultimately praised the students who partook in the financial literacy course.
“We’ve got 1,350 kids in this building and this clearly isn’t 1,350,” he said.
“So you guys are one step ahead of your peers in knowing what to do with your money. You can’t be so impulsive. You’ve got to be smart. Hopefully that is something you’ve learned from this. I thank the Bank of Ocean City and I thank Mr. Marx for taking it on.”
Conley said he attributes the program’s success to Marx.
“The big problem with EverFi in schools is getting students’ time in front of a computer,” he said. “So many classes require computer access, Kurt had to find time to get access … and he has done a fantastic job. Without Kurt Marx, this offering would not be such a success as it is.”
The 40 students are now among the 382 to complete the EverFi program at both SDHS and Worcester Preparatory School, according to Conley. The bank is also involved in Teach Children to Save and Junior Achievement, both of which educate hundreds of children on financial literacy on an annual basis.
