Field trips to bank branches, consulting for compulsive gamblers, and a money management game based on the "Survivor" television show are not available at many banks, but some Maryland high school seniors say they should be.
In an essay contest sponsored by the Maryland Bankers Association, students were instructed to answer the question: "If you were a bank president, how would you improve money management skills in your bank's community?"
Gordon Woepler, the chairman of the trade group's consumer and education outreach committee, said the question was picked because of the new financial education efforts at many banks and schools in Maryland.
And though only 35 students submitted essays, the trade group received a wide variety of ideas. In fact, many of the suggestions - such as putting banks in schools and offering online education courses for college students - really caught the eye of the banker judges, according to Mr. Woepler, who is also a senior manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Baltimore office.
"You saw reaction from the committee like 'This is a great idea' and 'This is something we should talk to our folks about,' " he said.
The winning essay, written by a 17-year-old girl from Westminster, described a bank that had money management programs for every stage of life, from brochures written for elementary school children to special retirement and Social Security advisers for the over-65 crowd.
The winner received a $1,000 scholarship in March. The second- and third-place contestants received scholarships of $500 and $250, respectively.
"The main reason we picked the first-place winner was her focus on the different age groups," Mr. Woepler said.
However, he said the third-place contestant had, by far, the most creative solution: creating a television show for a local cable station in which members of the community would compete to see who could best manage $1,000 through tasks like budgeting and shopping.
The show would resemble "Survivor" in that the person who is in the most debt at the end of each episode would be kicked out, and the last remaining contestant would get to take home his or her $1,000.
As the student pointed out, all the contestants would really be winners, because they would get "new knowledge of how to budget and use their money wisely."
