Manatee Middle program gives students the business skills to succeed

NAPLES — Hands shot up in the air ... two, three, four at a time. The questions didn't stop.

Why is a bank important?

Do you have to pay to put money in a bank?

How do banks foreclose houses?

What if you give somebody the wrong financial advice?

The students asking the questions are the future business leaders of America, the title embroidered in orange and black on their collared shirts.

Education leaders have called for businesses to invest in an interest in education. And businesses have asked that schools better prepare students for real-life careers. So Roberta Harris, a teacher and leader for the Manatee Middle Future Business Leaders Club, arranged for her 23 seventh- and eighth-grade students to see first hand how a business works.

She put action into words.

Harris said the students weren't coached on what to ask. It was their own curiosity that sparked such a provocative question-and-answer discussion during a recent field trip to Fifth Third Bank.

"They're going to have to deal with money the rest of their lives," Harris said. "This is a lifelong skill."

Watson Marcelin, a seventh-grader and first-timer in the club, wants to be an entrepreneur. He said he wants to open up his own business selling football equipment.

He and others asked, "Do you have to go to college to work in a bank?"

The answer, from Fifth Third employees: yes and no.

Alex Casola, a licensed personal banker with Fifth Third, said she finds too many people who wait too long to take control of their finances.

"We're talking about saving for the future," Casola said.

Each employee who spoke to the students had one clear message: It's never too early to start saving for your future.

Harris calls it "paying yourself first."

"Whatever money you get, you should put away $5," she said.

Manatee Middle, in East Naples, is the only middle school in the district with the club. Immokalee High School is the only other school that offers a similar program.

Harris' husband, Ned, an entrepreneur and volunteer with the club, thinks students are unprepared and lacking in financial skills when they graduate.

"People think that if you can do writing, reading, arithmetic, that you can do business," he said. "Well you can't."

He said students are "lacking in financial literacy."

The club grew from 17 to 23 boys and girls in a year, with four returning members. The club is in its seventh year and Harris said it continues to grow.

Why aren't similar clubs offered at every school? Harris doesn't have an answer except that it takes time and energy to make it happen, something that other teachers may not be able to give to make the club successful.

During a recent visit to Naples, Harvard Professor Ronald Ferguson said students need to be exposed to businesses starting in fifth grade. And that by seventh and eighth grade, students should be visiting different businesses to understand the pathways to a career.

"It's the notion of self ... helping students to develop images of who they can become," he said.

He suggested that educators can't trap kids in one trajectory.

Harris is trying to open her students' eyes to more than just one business possibility.

In March, she will take them to Estero to the Miromar Outlets to explore different retailers, management styles and understand the educational background needed to succeed in the retail industry.

But she said the fundamentals of any business come down to financial stability and the understanding of a financial institution like Fifth Third Bank.

One student asked, "What is a bond?" Another questioned how a person can get good credit.Eric Martinez, a seventh-grader in the club, wants to have his own law firm. His dad owns his own landscaping business and his mom works at McDonald's. Martinez said he likes to write and research things.

"This has taught me that you have to be organized," he said on how to succeed in business.

To Harris it's about molding students for their future and getting them excited about the possibilities.

One seventh grader, Diamond Bartholomew, illustrated the realistic necessity of having money.

"If you have no money, you have no life," she said.

Once the question-and-answer session came to a close, Fifth Third employees ushered students into the bank vault and handed out bright green plastic safes. Inside the safe was a $100 Grand candy bar.

It was a reminder to start saving early, like Harris said to "pay yourself first."