LOWELL, MA – On Friday, April 6, 2018, more than 40 students from Dracut High School, Lowell High School and Nashua High School South joined hundreds of students from across the state to compete in the Massachusetts School Banking Association (MSBA) Spring Conference Competition, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The MSBA hosts this event for area high schools that have banking and financial literacy programs through a financial institution partner. The competition tests the students’ knowledge and skills in financial topics as they relate to marketing, product development and general banking and finance.

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union has branch locations in Dracut High School, Lowell High School and Nashua High School South, and also offers a banking elective for juniors and seniors, where students take a financial literacy class and work hands-on in the branches. Students who participated in the 2018 MSBA competition are those who took this class with the Credit Union during the 2017-2018 school year.

“The MSBA competition is a wonderful chance for students to get together and put their financial knowledge to the test in a fun and unique way, said Mark S. Cochran, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union. “It’s a great experience for the students, and we are thrilled to be able to provide this opportunity to them,” he added.

At the event, students from each school were separated into groups based on the competition in which they participated. The Marketing and Product Development teams were given a prompt and challenged with creating a marketing campaign or financial product to present to the judges. Meanwhile, other students competed in the “Banking Bowl”, where they worked with their teams in the auditorium to answer questions on a variety of financial topics.

At the end of all competitions, students, school faculty and financial education representatives, gathered in the auditorium for an awards ceremony. Dracut High School was announced as the second place winner in the Banking Bowl. 

“It was fun to compete against the other teams and to test our knowledge on what we’ve been learning over the past few months,” said Matthew Daniell, a member of the second-place team. “We were really surprised and excited that we got second.”

“I think this was a great experience,” said Nicolas Surprenant, a Dracut High School student who also competed in the Banking Bowl. “It was awesome to be able to go to the Federal Reserve.”

Photo cutline: (From left) Charles Kosowicz, Adam Berger, Christian Frazier, Douglas Hill and Matthew Daniell represented Dracut High School at the Massachusetts School Banking Association’s Spring Conference Competition in the Banking Bowl. The team placed second against 23 other schools.

About Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union:

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union was established in 1912 and is a full-service, member-owned community-based financial cooperative with more than 85,000 members and $1.3 billion in assets. It operates eight full-service branches in Lowell, Dracut (2), Tyngsboro, Chelmsford, Methuen and Westford, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire; high-school branches at Lowell High, Dracut High and Nashua High School South; a loan center in Lowell and mortgage centers in Chelmsford and North Reading.