Personal Finance Challenge

On Thursday, March 6th, 19 Cardinal Ritter students participated in the Indiana Personal Finance Challenge held at the Indiana Government Center South Building in Downtown Indianapolis. This is the state qualifier for the National Personal Finance Challenge (NPFC) that provides high school students the opportunity to build and demonstrate their knowledge of money management. Teams are made up of 3 - 4 students and must put together and electronic presentation showcasing their expertise in the concepts of earning income, spending, saving, managing credit, investing, and managing risk. To select the teams, they all took an online baseline test of 20 questions. The highest scoring students were offered the opportunity to participate and teams were then formed. Once the teams were formed then the students had to take a second online test to qualify our team for the Indiana state competition. All 5 of our teams were accepted to compete in the state competition. Only 15 teams made it to this level. 2 of our teams made the Final Four and one of them finished 2nd overall! They received $1,000 to be split among their team. The winning team from each state competes in the National Finals held in Atlanta, GA this year and all of their expenses are covered. Each student that participated also received $20 lunch voucher to use in the Indiana Government Center South cafeteria. The judges were very impressed with all of our teams and told me that the difference between 1st and 4th place was only separated by no more than 4 points. Our students were very professionally dressed and that also impressed the judges which included business professionals and professors from Purdue University. The President of Retail Banking and her Downtown Branch Manager from Stock Yard Bank and Trust came to offer guidance to our students and Mr. Mattice helped chaperone the students. The students had an excellent time and are excited to go back next year utilizing the knowledge and experience to win! They made Cardinal Ritter High School stand out among the other schools competing from around the state.