Western Sydney School Students Make Sense of Finance with Sketch Comedy
Announcement posted by NTC 10 Mar 2015
Sydney, NSW (Wednesday, 10th March 2015) High school students across Western Sydney will learn skills crucial to their financial literacy as they participate in a sketch and improvisational comedy program. The MoneyGram Foundation proudly sponsors Mad About Money and joins together with The National Theatre for Children (NTC) to bring the show to schools at no cost. The tour begins Monday 16th March and will visit schools across Liverpool, Blacktown, Parramatta and other surrounding suburbs.
Michael Minassian, MoneyGram Senior Regional Director, Australia & Oceania sees the value of investing in students. “Today’s teens are tomorrow’s young adults, who will face important decisions regarding their spending and saving habits,” he says. “When we prepare them to develop healthy habits, the benefits are enormous—they will have less stress, less debt and less confusion about their finances.”
Mad About Money is a forty-minute performance divided into segments that humorously address topics like the difference between needs and wants, saving and investing, cash and credit and the importance of forming a savings habit. Two professional actors take suggestions from the audience and incorporate the ideas into their scenes through improvisation. “The kids respond so well to the program because they get to help shape it,” says NTC Managing Director Tobias Benn. “It’s an interactive experience rather than a passive presentation. The energy is very high, the information is relevant and meaningful to the kids and the information stays with them because learning and laughter are blended so seamlessly.”
The concepts examined in Mad About Money are reinforced by free student workbooks and teacher guides for educators to use in their lessons. Schools also gain access to digital learning materials to supplement their lessons with interactive classroom exercises, quizzes and games based around the program.
About MoneyGram
MoneyGram Australia makes it simple to transfer money to family and friends whenever and wherever they need it, worldwide. It’s just as easy to send and receive money. With 347,000 MoneyGram locations in over 200 countries and territories, MoneyGram has made it more convenient to send money to your loved ones.www.moneygram.com.au
About MoneyGram Foundation
The MoneyGram Foundation is a private, grant-making foundation that focuses solely on improving education for children around the world. MoneyGram believes education is the key to better economic opportunities, healthier families, individual freedom and empowerment and everything the foundation does goes towards our mission of inspiring minds and improving lives. The MoneyGram Foundation is proud to support the educational activities of NTC in Australia. www.moneygramfoundation.org
About NTC