Youth education specialist stresses how to save
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Marlborough - A convertible, an iPhone, a laptop, an African safari - the wants of the fifth-grade students at New Covenant Christian School in Marlborough are as diverse as the kids themselves. But each of their desires shares a comshe mon element: they all cost money.

And it's up to one woman to teach these kids to save for what they want while being able to afford what they need.

Diana Wheeler isn't a teacher in the traditional sense. She doesn't have her own classroom, she doesn't assign homework or detention, and she doesn't have a Christmas tree covered with apple-shaped ornaments collected over the years.

And yet she is providing children with the lessons they need to be successful for the rest of their lives.

Wheeler is the youth education specialist for Digital Credit Union, and she works tirelessly to put a stop to her students' financial problems before they ever get the chance to start.

"The very first lesson that I teach them and that everything falls back to is to ask yourself, 'Do I need it? Do I want it? And can I afford it?'" Wheeler said.

Wheeler works in several schools throughout the area, teaching kids about banking, investing and ways to prevent falling into debt. The service is free and one, she said, every child should be exposed to before graduating from high school.

"If they can become more financially savvy at a young age, it will help them to better understand their finances as adults and will hopefully help them from ending up in any kind of bankruptcy later," she said.

One of the biggest hurdles that Wheeler faces is that many of her students come to her with little to no financial education from their parents. Even more difficult is when the parents set an example of poor financial decisionmaking.

But despite the challenges, Wheeler said, it's more than worth it when hears how much the kids have benefited from the program.

"One young man told me he was just so happy to learn about these topics because creditors are calling off the hook for his dad and he doesn't want to end up in that situation," she said. "And they don't teach a lot of these things in schools, so where else are they going to learn before it's too late?"

Because she works with children as young as 10, Wheeler has developed several games to help make the sometimes abstract information much more concrete.

Jeopardy, for example, pits four teams against each other, asking questions like "What does it mean to make a deposit?" "Where is the safest place to keep your money?" and "Can a want also be a need?"

She's hoping that making money fun and easier to understand through the use of games will decrease the anxiety that can exist when trying to handle finances.

"If you just stand up there and lecture, they're not going to understand, they're not going to grasp it in the same way and that will make it harder for them in the future," she said.