Lee Davis High School Students & VACU Partner for Award Winning Results

When Ashlyn Doane, a Lee Davis High School Junior called looking for assistance with her team’s DECA competition entry on Financial Education, Virginia Credit Union Educators gladly answered. DECA is an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.

“At Virginia Credit Union, we are advocates for informed financial decision making,” said Tom Katovsich, Sr. Financial Education Specialist. “By the time young people graduate from college many already have a negative net worth. We want to help them learn both every day financial management and to make informed decisions about longer term goals.”

Ashlyn, along with fellow students Hala Al-Mustafa and Kelsey Johnson, also Juniors, decided it was important to focus on teaching kids about personal finance for their project. “We’ve all taken marketing and economics in school, but a lot of kids don’t,” said Hala, “Students need this information because soon they’ll be getting jobs and cars and they need to be able to make good financial choices.”

The girls worked together to form a comprehensive financial education program called “LIFE – Leaping Into Financial Education,” which won 2nd Place in the State and International DECA competitions held in Atlanta, GA in April. They partnered with financial educators from Virginia Credit Union to teach students about checking, saving, the difference between credit and debit cards and led a budgeting game.

The LIFE project also included banners promoting financial education around the school, as well as QR codes that the students could scan to see financial tips. They also launched a Twitter contest where students could tweet their own financial tips and use the #LDLIFE (Lee Davis LIFE) for a chance to win donuts for their class.

As part of their DECA entry, Ashlyn, Hala and Kelsey prepared a 15 minute presentation as well as a thirty page paper. “At first we were overwhelmed,” said Kelsey, “But we’re proud of how far we’ve come and how we learned to work together and leverage our individual strengths to succeed.” Ashlyn agrees, citing how the project helped them develop skills around “time management, working within deadlines, problem solving and planning events and promotions.”

“We knew these young ladies would do well in the competition because of their passion around educating their peers, and the clarity of their mission.” said Katovsich. “When we talk to adults they often say, ‘I wish someone would have given me this information before I was making financial decisions on my own.’ We were glad to see that these Lee Davis DECA students already had that figured out.”

Ashlyn, Hala and Kelsey plan to continue to be there to support their fellow DECA students next year, helping them to prepare for the competition.

A financial cooperative serving more than 265,000 members, Virginia Credit Union offers a variety of affordable banking services, loans, mortgages, and free financial education resources, with a focus on helping people be more confident with their finances. Virginia Credit Union is an equal housing opportunity lender and is federally insured by NCUA.