California Council on Economic Education Receives $2,000 Grant from Bank of the West
Los Angeles, CA – January 4, 2010 – The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE), a non-profit dedicated to advancing economic literacy throughout California, today announced it has received a $2,000 grant from Bank of the West. The grant will help fund MoneyWiseTeen in Orange County, a program designed to help high school students develop reasoning skills necessary for economic and financial self-reliance.
“We are pleased to support CCEE and the MoneyWiseTeen program in Orange County,” said Patricia Covarrubias, Community Affairs Regional Officer for Bank of the West. “Financial education is one of the critical issues facing our nation and all of us as individual consumers. By the time our children reach the age of 18, one-third of them will have acquired their own credit card. Additionally, people 25 or younger make up the fastest growing group of bankruptcy filers according to the Federal Government. Young students today will be tomorrow’s consumers and financial institutions including Bank of the West all have a stake in equipping youth with a better understanding of personal finance. We commend CCEE for its continued efforts in advocating the importance of early education in economics and personal finance.”
Bank of the West is committed to assisting communities not only by providing financial services that help businesses and individuals prosper, but also contributions in the form of volunteerism, charitable giving and sponsorships. The Bank grants millions of dollars in charitable donations to non-profits each year and is a supporter of the arts, college athletics and professional sports.
“The Bank of the West grant will help us provide teachers in Orange County with the tools necessary to teach students complex economics principles in ways that relate to them,” said CCEE Executive Director Jim Charkins. “MoneyWiseTeen has been tremendously successful in preparing teenagers to be financially independent. The more students we can reach, the better off our state – and its economic future – will be.”
MoneyWiseTeen is one of 10 programs CCEE conducts each year with the ultimate goal of preparing California students for successful participation in the economy. The web-based program teaches economic concepts that help teenagers develop knowledge and reasoning skills necessary for economic and financial success. Ten web-based animated modules illustrate economic principles through stories that are understandable and relevant to teenagers, and include interactive activities and questions that allow students to learn by doing.
About Bank of the West: Based in San Francisco, $64 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com) offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services. The Bank operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states. In 2009, for the second consecutive year, Bank of the West was ranked the highest in customer satisfaction among retail banks in the West by J.D. Power and Associates. Bank of the West’s holding company, BancWest Corporation, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, among the six strongest banks in the world, according to Standard & Poor’s.
About the California Council on Economic Education (CCEE):
The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consortium of education, business, and political and labor leaders dedicated to advancing economic literacy throughout California. The CCEE is affiliated with the National Council on Economic Education in a nationwide network of state Councils and local Centers for Economic Education delivering economics education programs and materials to K-12 teachers. For more information on the California Council on Economic Education, please visit: www.ccee.org.
California Council on Economic Education