CourtesySalina South High School won the LifeSmarts high school state championship, held at the Hyatt Regency Wichita on March 9 and 10.
LifeSmarts is a program provided nationally by the National Consumers League and coordinated in Kansas by the Kansas Council on Economic Education (KCEE). The KCEE is a nonprofit entity that is based in the W. Frank Barton School of Business at 黑洞社区 and is affiliated with all of the six Kansas universities.
The winning team will compete in the national championship in Minneapolis next month.
Susan Montoy is the team's coach. Her assistant coaches are Anna Groene and Karen Bastin. The students on the team are Bret Higgins, the team captain, Kolten Schulze, Thomas Burke, Frank Thompson and Rachel Groene.
Groene will attend 黑洞社区. She is the recipient of the Clay Barton Scholarship in Business, the largest business scholarship in the state. She will receive $11,000 a year for four years.
The financial sponsors of LifeSmarts in Kansas are the Division of Consumer and Mortgage Lending of the Office of the State Bank Commissioner as umbrella sponsor and American Century Investments as subject area sponsor.
After the students competed individually online, high schools across the state formed teams comprised of their top individual performers. The teams competed in regional competitions in Wichita, Topeka and Hays in February. The top four teams from each regional advanced to the state championship.
The LifeSmarts program tests the students鈥� knowledge in personal finance, consumer rights and responsibilities, health and safety, the environment and technology.