Washington Federal, in partnership with leading education technology company Everfi, Inc., was proud to honor nearly 300 students at Metro Tech High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, May 11 as they graduated from the Washington Federal Financial Scholars Program, a financial education curriculum designed to provide students with the critical skills needed to make sound financial decisions. The program, which launched at Metro Tech in 2013, provides schools with Everfi’s interactive, web-based financial management education tool at no cost to either the school itself or taxpayers.
“The web-based platform uses the latest in new media technology – simulations, avatars, gaming and adaptive-pathing – to bring complex financial concepts to life for today’s digital generation. The high school course offers nine units in a variety of financial topics including credit scores, insurance, credit cards, student loans, mortgages, taxes, stocks, savings, 401k’s and other critical concepts that map to national financial literacy standards,” said Mike Brown, Washington Federal Arizona regional president. “The platform uniquely tracks the progress and performance of every student and provides students who successfully complete the course with the Certification in Financial Literacy diplomas, which we provided today to our graduates, a valuable mark of distinction on college applications and resumes.”
Since its inception at Metro Tech, the program has graduated more than 570 local students and grown to six other schools across Arizona as well as into sister states including Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and New Mexico. In total, the Washington Federal Financial Scholars Program has seen more than 8,300 students graduate over the past three years.
“They keys to the success of the Washington Federal Financial Scholars Program are the curriculum’s personalized instruction, which provides students with a self-paced, interactive experience tailored to their needs; measurable learning outcomes via surveys and assessments, which provide visibility into student knowledge gains and changes in attitudes and behaviors; and face-to-face engagement between the students and financial experts from Washington Federal several times during the year,” said Ray Martinez, EverFi Co-Founder and President.
The program has been such a success at Metro Tech that in 2015 Richard Padgett, who serves as vice president of the equipment finance division for Washington Federal and chairs the Washington Federal Financial Scholars Program, joined the Metro Tech Career and Technical Education Banking and Finance Advisory Board to help enhance the ability of school to bring banking and finance skills into the classroom further and on a more regular basis.
In addition to the Washington Federal Financial Scholars Program, Washington Federal branches across Arizona also provide a financial literacy platform for elementary and middle schools through its Save at School program. Save at School helps middle and elementary school students learn the habit of thrift by making modest but regular deposits during on-site school ‘Bank Days,’ held once or twice each month and overseen by local Washington Federal staff.
“We also match each initial $5 opening deposit to a Save at School account dollar-for-dollar,” said Brown, noting the program is in more than a dozen schools across Arizona and currently accepting inquiries to expand further for the 2016-2017 school year.
About Washington Federal
Washington Federal is a full-service national banking institution that focuses on business-to-business banking, commercial and equipment lending, and home loan and corporate real estate financing. It has 35 offices in Arizona including locations in Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Goodyear, Green Valley, Mesa, Phoenix, Prescott Valley, Scottsdale, Sun City, Sun City West and Tucson. Washington Federal is committed to developing a strong and loyal relationship with clients, shareholders and the community at large. For more information please visit www.washingtonfederal.com.
About EverFi
EverFi, Inc. is the leading education technology company focused on teaching, assessing, and certifying K-12 and college students in the critical skills they need for life. The company teams with major corporations and foundations to provide the programs at no cost to K-12 schools. Some of America’s leading CEOs and venture capital firms are EverFi investors including Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Twitter founder Evan Williams, Rethink Education, New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), and Tomorrow Ventures (the investment arm of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt). Learn more at www.everfi.com.