DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Texas Council on Economic Education (TCEE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving economic and financial literacy in Texas schools, announced that PlainsCapital Bank is the underwriting sponsor for TCEE’s statewide spring awards ceremonies. Each spring, TCEE holds its annual awards for the winners of the Stock Market Game, National Economics Challenge and the Personal Finance Challenge. Nearly 1,000 first-, second-, and third-place students in grades 4 – 12 will be recognized at five regional ceremonies taking place this month in Dallas, Houston, New Braunfels, El Paso, and Brownsville, as well as several smaller ceremonies at local schools.
“It’s wonderful to receive support for our initiatives from vital community partners like PlainsCapital Bank,” said TCEE Chairman John Ivie. “It enables us to deliver on our mission to provide teachers with hands-on lessons and programs that allow students to practice implementing real-life economic and personal financial skills and helps pave the way to a life of economic security. By educating teachers who educate students, TCEE reaches hundreds of thousands of young people each year, increasing the impact of each dollar spent through the multiplier effect of teaching teachers.”
For almost 50 years, TCEE has been working with kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, providing hands-on lessons and programs that assist students in developing real-life economic and personal financial skills. The awards ceremonies are an opportunity to showcase students’ achievements and to recognize the teachers who help make it happen, while presenting cash prizes to the winning teams from around the state. In addition to the cash awards, winners in each grade level and region for the fall, spring, and year-long competitions receive trophies, medals, plaques, and certificates. Along with sponsoring the awards ceremonies across the state, PlainsCapital is hosting the North Texas awards presentation—the largest of the five regional ceremonies—at its Victory Park branch in Dallas on May 8.
“We’re very excited to support programs like the Stock Market Game and the economics and personal finance contests, which educate students about money, finance, and economics in engaging ways,” said PlainsCapital Bank President and CEO Jerry Schaffner. “Young people are energized by money, since it already plays a big role in their lives, and they want to know how to control it. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is their reaction to investment and moneymaking. The entrepreneurial spirit comes natural to them, and it’s up to us to help harness it.”
TCEE’s 2017–2018 awards ceremonies for Dallas, Houston, and New Braunfels are listed below. The El Paso, Brownsville, and local school ceremonies are in the process of being finalized.
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North Texas Region: Dallas |
Houston Region |
Austin & San Antonio Region: New Braunfels |
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| May 8, 2018 | May 10, 2018 |
May 15, 2018 |
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6 p.m. – 8 p.m. |
5 p.m. – 7 p.m. |
5 p.m. – 7 p.m. |
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PlainsCapital Bank Victory Park |
Amegy Bank Tower |
Comal ISD Administration Building |
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2323 Victory Ave., 5th floor |
1717 W. Loop South, 9th floor |
1404 IH 35 North, Boardroom |
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Dallas, TX 75219 |
Houston, TX 77027 |
New Braunfels, TX 78130 |
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*The awards ceremonies are by invitation only, but the media is invited.
Schaffner acknowledged the ability of the TCEE-sponsored competitions to create learning experiences for students in a way that makes decision-making come alive, adding, “They get to apply the knowledge they’ve gained, using economics and personal finance skills to help them make real-world decisions, from managing a household budget to decisions involved in the production and marketing of goods and services.”
ABOUT THE AWARDS COMPETITIONS
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Stock Market Game™
The TCEE-sponsored Stock Market Game is an educational simulation designed to develop math, personal finance, writing, research, and critical thinking skills while educating students on the stock market and American economic system. For the 2017-2018 school year, approximately 20,000 Texas students in grades 4 – 12 participated in the competition, in which teams are given a hypothetical $100,000 to invest in the real stock market, making buy, sell and hold decisions on common stock, mutual funds, and bonds. Over the respective 10-week fall and spring simulations, as well as the year-long competition, team members work together to manage their portfolios and create a successful investment management strategy.
Council for Economic Education (CEE) National Economics Challenge
The CEE’s National Economics Challenge is one of the country’s most prestigious student economics competitions. Students compete in the college-bowl type competition, which is designed to test teams on their understanding of basic and advanced economics concepts and their ability to apply problem-solving and critical thinking skills to real-world issues and current events. In 2016, a team from Houston won the national competition.
Personal Finance Challenge
The TCEE’s Personal Finance Challenge is an opportunity for middle and high school students to demonstrate their personal finance knowledge on topics including spending, credit, savings, investing, income, and money management. Team members work collaboratively to find practical solutions to life’s money challenges.
PlainsCapital first partnered with TCEE in 2013 to develop a targeted financial literacy curriculum for seventh- and eighth-grade students. PlainsCapital’s continued funding support ensures that the TCEE-sponsored curriculum is provided free of charge to teachers across the state, so they can incorporate financial literacy principles into their classroom instructions, as well as to organizations that provide programs for underserved students.
“These programs provide our young people with tools they need to develop their own personal understanding of our economic and financial system, the role they play in it and how they can succeed,” said Ivie.
About Texas Council on Economic Education
Since its founding in 1969, The Texas Council on Economic Education’s mission is to improve the quality of economic and financial literacy education in schools across the state, establishing the seeds of a healthier Texas economy and paving the way to a life of greater economic security for its residences. TCEE accomplishes this through its statewide network of university centers, where economics professors work hand-in-hand with teachers to develop and deliver the best economic and financial literacy curriculums and programs available. For more information, visit EconomicsTexas.org.
About PlainsCapital Bank
As of March 31, 2017, Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank, the sixth largest Texas-headquartered bank by deposit market share*, operated 63 branches with more than 1,200 employees providing highly personalized relationship banking through a single point of contact. Offering commercial lending, treasury management, private banking, and trust and wealth management services, PlainsCapital Bank empowers responsive, local decision making in each of its major markets: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, the Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio. PlainsCapital Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH). Find more information at PlainsCapital.com. *Source: SNL Financial