July 26, 2012
DALLAS— Advancial Federal Credit Union continued the initiative to support education by awarding scholarships in the amounts of $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 to three Dinero Teens members. Dinero Teens is a financial services program designed for Advancial members aged 13 to 18.
“This year’s applicants were especially creative” said Brent Sheffield, President and CEO of Advancial. “We were thoroughly impressed by the unique ways that the students chose to showcase their financial planning knowledge.”
This year’s task for Dinero Teens was to create a thorough, organized and creative budget presentation for their college expenses. Many times high school teens underestimate the cost of tuition, books, room and board and the many other costs incurred during college years. This scholarship activity is meant to encourage junior high and senior aged high school teens to create a presentation detailing those costs. In order to involve employees in the selection process we opened voting company-wide to determine the top three winners. Applicants were judged on academic achievement and the content, organization, clarity and creativity of the budget project submitted.
The first place winner received a $3,000 scholarship for a creative song about budgeting. The song was a parody of the song Viva la Viva by Coldplay and was transformed by the winning contestant into Viva la Budget. A professional and well thought PowerPoint presentation earned a Dinero Teen member from Heath, Texas the spot as Advancial’s second place winner. She outlined costs for housing, tuition and other expenses she will face in secondary schooling and the steps she will take to bridge the gap. Advancial’s first ever blog entry earned the third place recognition and a total of $1,000 for the Dinero Teen winner. This creative Dinero Teen included daily entries in the blog about such topics as the cost of a new bicycle lock to researching a new cell phone plan on billshrink.com.
Advancial supports financial education through programs such as Dinero Teens. The Dinero Teens program gives members access to a range of financial products and services including savings accounts, low minimum starter certificates, checking accounts and credit cards. Members can also enjoy several perks, such as a quarterly newsletter and the annual scholarship contest.
With a history dating back to 1937, Advancial provides a diversified line of advanced financial solutions to its members. Today, Advancial is a full-service financial institution that serves more than 73,000 members worldwide and has assets of over $1 billion.