Kansas City, MO and St. Louis, MO – December 6, 2011 – Tackling the problem of financial illiteracy among students head-on, the Missouri Council on Economic Education and Visa Inc. today hosted, via Cisco TelePresence, a game of Financial Football - a free educational video game and classroom curriculum developed by Visa. Former Chiefs Quarterback Mark Vlasic and students from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy gathered at the Kansas City campus of the University of Missouri to take on St. Louis Rams Offensive Tackle Adam Goldberg and students from Oakville High School, based out of the St. Louis campus, in a lively game. The centerpiece of Visa's nationwide educational initiative with the NFL and NFL PLAYERS, Financial Football helps students and adults tackle their financial futures.
"Financial Football is a wonderful way to get students interested in personal finances and give them a financial playbook they can use the rest of their lives. This is a valuable program and a great partnership," said Michael English, President of the Missouri Council on Economic Education.
Available online, at www.practicalmoneyskills.com/football, Financial Football puts students' fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game environment by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Visa has also released the game as a free iPhone app on iTunes, along with an optimized HD iPad version.
"For over a decade, Visa has been committed to promoting financial literacy and we are pleased to be working with the Missouri Council on Economic Education," said Jason Alderman, Senior Director of Financial Education, Visa Inc.
This launch is part of a national educational campaign with Visa, the NFL and NFL PLAYERS, now in its seventh season. Since 2006, Visa has reached agreements with thirty-three states to distribute Financial Football to every high school and middle school in those states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
Financial Football is part of Practical Money Skills for Life (www.practicalmoneyskills.com) a free, award-winning financial education program that reaches millions of people around the world each year. Launched in 1995, the program is now available in ten languages in thirty countries. At Practical Money Skills for Life, educators, parents and students can access free educational resources including personal finance articles, games, lesson plans, and more. Visa also runs What's My Score (www.whatsmyscore.org), a leading higher education consumer awareness program. The website guides college students through the ABC's of a FICO credit score, from factors that can lower a score to ways on improving it, at no charge.
About the Missouri Council on Economic Education
The Missouri Council on Economic Education is a nonprofit organization that promotes economic and financial education in Missouri schools. In addition to the Missouri Personal Finance Challenge, MCEE's core programs include educating teachers in economics, providing them with the materials and methods essential to economic education.
About Visa Inc.
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks–VisaNet–that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa/our_business.html.
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