'Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge' Announced

(SAN FRANCISCO)—Visa U.S.A. and Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) today announced they will be sponsoring the Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge as part of a joint effort to recognize high school teachers (grades 9-12) who creatively teach financial literacy lessons in their classrooms. The innovative new contest encourages and rewards teachers and classes that best demonstrate creativity, student participation and improvement in personal finance knowledge.

"Over the years Visa U.S.A. has been working to build strong relationships with educators to provide them the supplemental tools necessary to help our young people learn better money management skills before they graduate," said Rosetta Jones, Visa U.S.A. Director. "The Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge provides us an opportunity to recognize innovative and creative teachers who are truly making a life-long difference in their students’ lives."

"We have a long history of working to provide the business leaders of tomorrow with the fundamental skills needed for success," said Jean Buckley, President and CEO of FBLA-PBL. "We believe that by working with Visa U.S.A. to sponsor this program we will further make progress toward our shared goal of ensuring that students graduate from high school with an understanding of basic money management skills."

The Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge is an extension of Visa’s ongoing effort to improve the financial literacy of young people. Teachers can visit www.practicalmoneyskills.com to register.

Any high school teacher who teaches money management skills is invited to enter. The deadline for registration is September 30, 2002. All entries must be submitted by March 15, 2003 and the winners will be announced in April 2003.

Classes that participate in the contest will be judged on the following criteria that will evaluate the teaching skills employed along with student results:

The top educator will receive a personal computer, a year-long classroom subscription to USA Today, a school or class computer lab, a speaking opportunity at an educational seminar, a position on Visa’s Practical Money Skills Educator Advisory Board, and a $2,500 gift certificate to a leading online merchant that can be used for books and classroom supplies. In addition, two first place educators will be selected to receive a personal computer, a $1,000 gift certificate, and a position on Visa’s Practical Money Skills Educator Advisory Board. Twenty-five Honorable Mention winners will receive a certificate of participation and be featured on Visa’s website, www.practicalmoneyskills.com.

Additional components of Visa’s ongoing campaign to enhance personal financial literacy include:

About Visa U.S.A.
Visa is the world’s leading payment brand and largest consumer payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumer and merchant customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives. More than 14,000 U.S. financial institutions rely on Visa’s processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate over $915 billion in annual transaction volume – including roughly half of all Internet payments – with virtually 100 percent reliability. U.S. consumers carry 376 million Visa-branded smart, credit, commercial, prepaid and check cards, accepted at approximately 24 million locations worldwide. Visa’s people, partnerships, brand, payment technology and security standards are helping to create universal commerce – the ability to safely conduct transactions anytime, anywhere, anyway. For more information about Visa, please visit www.visa.com.

About Practical Money Skills for Life
The Practical Money Skills for Life curriculum is teacher tested and teacher approved. At the 2001 National Education Association Expo, the program was put before teachers to evaluate and grade. Fully 99 percent of teachers who reviewed the site said they approve of the Practical Money Skills for Life program; 98 percent said they would recommend the site to other educators and 94 percent gave the program a "B" or better. The curriculum is currently being used by 2.5 million teachers, 37 million students and in 100,000 schools. Beyond a focus on educating high schoolers to be smart money managers, Visa U.S.A. has also partnered with the Reserve Officers Association to make available Practical Money Skills for Life resources to military families at installations across the United States. Additionally, this program won the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators 2002 Achievement in Consumer Education Award (ACE) for the best innovative program for the private sector, was named an "Honorable Mention" by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy’s 2002 Soaring$tar Award, was listed on the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse Digital Dozen, earned a "four star" rating from both Blue Web'n and from The Detroit Free Press, was given the Teacher Information Network Gold Award by Teacher.com, and accepted the prestigious Golden Web Award. Visa U.S.A. was also a strong supporter of the Leave No Child Behind Act of 2001 and its allocation of $450 million in block grant funding for financial literacy education in public schools.

About FBLA
Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 student business organization with a quarter million members in 12,000 chartered high school and college chapters world-wide. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. FBLA-PBL was developed as an enhancement to the traditional classroom educational model. Its vision is to be the premier career student association helping an ever-increasing number of business students reach their full potential. Participation in FBLA-PBL can have a direct impact on the course and success of a young person’s career. Some four million plus students have learned, through active membership in FBLA-PBL, about the world of business and what is expected of them in the workplace and as entrepreneurs.