SAN FRANCISCO - April 14, 2003 - Visa USA and Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) today announced the winners of the Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge - a joint effort to recognize high school educators who creatively teach financial literacy lessons in their classrooms. The innovative contest honored teachers and classes that best demonstrated creativity, student participation, and overall improvement in personal finance knowledge over the 2002-03 school year.

he Grand Prize Winner is Annette Haynes, a teacher at Charles Henderson High School in Troy, Alabama. In addition to the Grand Prize Winner, two first place educators also were selected. Jean Churchill, a teacher at Oliver Ames High School in North Easton, Massachusetts and Marie Dyer, a teacher at Bootstrap Ranch High School in Belgrade, Montana were recognized for their creative teaching skills.

In a recent Visa USA survey, 77 percent of adults said that young adults learn the most about managing their money through the "trial and error of life experience" rather than in school, underscoring the need for an increased effort to teach money skills. Additionally, of those who were surveyed and were also parents, almost a quarter (24 percent) said their children had taken a course on practical money skills, and 82 percent of those said these classes have helped their children learn the basics of managing money.

"Sponsoring the Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge with FBLA has given us the chance to recognize teachers who are making a considerable difference in their students' lives by helping them become more financially savvy," said Rosetta Jones, director, Visa USA. "We commend these exceptional teachers for successfully engaging their classes in learning these critical life skills."

"We believe the methods of teaching inspired by this program can help serve as examples for other educators that provide financial education to young people," said Jean Buckley, president and CEO of FBLA-PBL. "The continued efforts of dedicated educators like these will ensure that more students graduate from high school with a firm grasp of fundamental money management skills."

"Personal finance skills are really important because Americans must graduate from high school financially literate," said Chauncey Veatch, the 2002 National Teacher of the Year and one of the judges of the Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge. "They just don't understand the everyday responsibility of balancing a checkbook and how much it costs to make it through each month and each day. I really enjoyed reading the students' remarks and their comments about what they have learned," added Veatch.

The expert Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge judging panel included Money magazine columnist and Today Show contributor Jean Chatzky, Nancy Register of the Consumer Federation of America, and 2002 National Teacher of the Year Chauncey Veatch.

The Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge is an extension of Visa's ongoing efforts to improve the financial literacy of young people. Teachers registered in September 2002 on www.practicalmoneyskills.com - the free online financial education curriculum for students, teachers, parents, and consumers of all ages. Classes that participated in the contest were judged on the following criteria that evaluated the teaching skills employed along with student results:

• Improvement of financial literacy test results - Improvement was measured by the difference in class average between pre-test and post-test scores. Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy developed the recommended test for this contest.
  
• Creative teaching strategies - The creative component reflected the methods used by the educator to incorporate personal finance material into his/her lesson plans.
  
• Student learning - This portion of the entry contained a demonstration of changes in student understanding towards how they managed their money.

The top winner, Annette Haynes, will receive a personal computer, a year-long classroom subscription to USA Today, a school or class computer lab, a speaking opportunity at an educational seminar, a position on Visa's Practical Money Skills Educator Advisory Board, and a $2,500 gift certificate to a leading online merchant that can be used for books and classroom supplies. The two first place educators, Jean Churchill and Marie Dyer, will receive a personal computer, a $1,000 gift certificate for books and classroom supplies, and a position on Visa's Practical Money Skills Educator Advisory Board. Twenty-five Honorable Mention winners will receive a certificate of participation and be featured on Visa's Web site, www.practicalmoneyskills.com.

About Practical Money Skills for Life
The Practical Money Skills for Life curriculum is teacher tested and teacher approved. At the 2001 National Education Association Expo, the program was put before 500 teachers to evaluate and grade. Fully 99 percent of teachers who reviewed the site said they approve of the Practical Money Skills for Life program; 98 percent said they would recommend the site to other educators and 94 percent gave the program a "B" or better. Additionally, this program has received a "four star" rating from The Detroit Free Press and has been recognized by Teacher.com as a Teacher Information Network Gold Award winner, and is also the recipient of the prestigious Golden Web Award.

About Visa
Visa is the world's leading payment brand and largest consumer payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumer and merchant customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives. Nearly 21,000 financial institutions worldwide rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $2.4 trillion in annual transaction volume with virtually 100 percent reliability. Consumers in more than 150 countries carry more than one billion Visa-branded cards, accepted at millions of locations worldwide. Within the U.S., nearly 14,000 financial institutions issue more than 386 million Visa cards, accounting for $989 billion in annual transaction volume. Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources - anytime, anywhere, anyway. For more information about Visa, please visit www.visa.com.

About FBLA
Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 student business organization with a quarter million members in 12,000 chartered high school and college chapters worldwide. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. FBLA-PBL was developed as an enhancement to the traditional classroom educational model. Its vision is to be the premier career student association helping an ever-increasing number of business students reach their full potential. Participation in FBLA-PBL can have a direct impact on the course and success of a young person's career. Some four million plus students have learned, through active membership in FBLA-PBL, about the world of business and what is expected of them in the workplace and as entrepreneurs.

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