St. Louis Fed Partners with Language Immersion Schools to Teach Financial Literacy

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools are partnering to focus on economics and financial education during the schools’ two-week summer session, which runs through June 12.

The summer session, an extended school year option, will teach students everything they need to know about financial literacy, from piggy banks to savings accounts.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Econ Lowdown program offers award-winning, free classroom resources for K-16 educators to assist in teaching about economics, personal finance, money and banking, and the Federal Reserve. The economic and financial education resources reach about 400,000 students across the country each year. More information about these resources can be found at stlouisfed.org/education.

St. Louis Language Immersion Schools Inc. is a federal non-profit organization that operates a network of independent charter public schools in St. Louis. Schools participating in the Fed’s Econ Lowdown summer session include The French School, The Spanish School and The Chinese School.

Language Immersion School students in grades kindergarten through six will dive deeper into financial literacy, personal finance and economics, according to Rachel D’Souza-Siebert, director of development at the schools. “It’s a really special time to learn something new they don’t learn through the school year,” she said.

Mary Suiter, assistant vice president and economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said the partnership aims to help students learn personal finance and economics, “so children will understand why savings and setting finance goals are important.”

Language Immersion School students have the opportunity to visit a country that speaks their designated language. Gateway Credit Union will join the discussion to teach and encourage children to save money for a financial goal, such as funding a future trip.

Over the past several months, teachers from the three schools have visited the Fed for training.

Media are invited to attend a learning celebration that highlights summer session presentations from 10 to 11 a.m.  June 12 at The Chinese School, 3740 Marine, St. Louis, Mo., 63118.

For more information or to set up another time to visit the school, members of the media should contact Maria Hasenstab at maria.e.hasenstab@stls.frb.org or 314-444-8321.