{"id":14405,"date":"2020-09-14T13:53:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T13:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/?p=14405"},"modified":"2021-03-19T05:53:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T05:53:38","slug":"lifesmarts-consumer-literacy-program-launches-2020-21-season-with-new-online-learning-scholarship-and-community-service-opportunities-for-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/lifesmarts-consumer-literacy-program-launches-2020-21-season-with-new-online-learning-scholarship-and-community-service-opportunities-for-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"LifeSmarts consumer literacy program launches 2020-21 season with new online learning, scholarship, and community service opportunities for teens"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>September 14, 2020<\/p>\n<p>Millions of\u00a0student\u00a0leaders\u00a0have gained real-world knowledge through the program\u2019s quarter-century of education and competition<\/p>\n<p>Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242\u00a0or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202)\u00a0207-2832<\/p>\n<p>Washington, DC\u2014Today marks the official launch of the 2020-2021 season of LifeSmarts, a national scholarship competition and educational program for middle-school and high-school students that tests knowledge of real-life consumer issues and\u00a0is helping\u00a0to create a future generation of consumer-savvy adults.\u00a0A new season of LifeSmarts goes live online at LifeSmarts.org today. LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League, the nation\u2019s pioneering consumer advocacy watchdog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very excited to launch\u00a0this\u202fseason of LifeSmarts,\u201d said Program Director Lisa Hertzberg. \u201cFor\u00a0more than\u00a0a quarter century, LifeSmarts has given students the skills they need to succeed as adults. We\u2019ve seen more than 1.5 million students gain knowledge, confidence, leadership capabilities, and team-building skills. The competition is fun, and the impact of LifeSmarts is life-long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Education certainly looks different across the country this year, and LifeSmarts has tools to help. \u201cNo matter what modality schools are using, LifeSmarts has resources for educators and parents to use during this unique time,\u201d said Hertzberg. \u201cDeveloping smart and successful citizens, workers, and consumers is always our mission, and we\u2019re here to help students and educators meet the challenges imposed by COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LifeSmarts focuses on five main content areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>consumer rights and responsibilities<\/li>\n<li>personal finance<\/li>\n<li>technology<\/li>\n<li>health and safety<\/li>\n<li>and the environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each year, LifeSmarts competitors answer more than 3.5 million consumer questions about credit reports, recycling, nutrition, social media, state lemon laws, and everything in between. Students are quizzed on their knowledge of these subject areas during online competition. Top-performing teams then advance to statewide competitions, and state champion teams\u00a0as well as several wildcard teams\u00a0advance to the national championship held each year in a different American city.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021\u00a0National\u00a0LifeSmarts\u00a0Championship is scheduled to take place\u00a0in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 21-24, 2021. \u00a0LifeSmarts will host State Champion and Wild Card teams from both the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 program years, celebrating winning students in a first-ever double competition. If COVID-19 makes that impossible, NCL will host a virtual event. Winning team members receive scholarships and other prizes.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to online, state, and national competitions, LifeSmarts recognition and awards occur throughout the program year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Teams of students vie for cash prizes in the online TeamSmarts quiz, which focuses on a specific LifeSmarts content area each month from September through\u00a0February.<\/li>\n<li>Classroom mentor program: Five $1,000 scholarships are awarded each winter to winning\u00a0LifeSmarts\u00a0students who become LifeSmarts OTC Medicine Safety Mentors to educate younger students and community members about medicine safety. LifeSmarts thanks Johnson &amp; Johnson for underwriting this important community service project.<\/li>\n<li>Partnering with FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), 4-H, and FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America), LifeSmarts complements these organizations\u2019 projects, judging events, competitive events, and activities.\u00a0LifeSmarts\u00a0offers special opportunities for members of these student leadership organizations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>LifeSmarts is active in all states and the District of Columbia, where NCL is headquartered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are proud of the impact LifeSmarts has made in its 26\u00a0years of educating teens, and we are excited to continue to grow the LifeSmarts program, to educate students about financial literacy, and to create a new generation of savvy, market-ready consumers and workers,\u201d said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. \u201cToo often traditional high school curriculum fails to teach students vital information that will be crucial once students go to college, get their first job, or move out of their parents\u2019 house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to hosting the official LifeSmarts competition, LifeSmarts.org provides resources for educators to supplement existing lesson plans. These include daily quizzes, educational videos, social media competitions, focused study guides, and scholarship opportunities. LifeSmarts lessons closely align with courses taught in family and consumer sciences, business, technology, health, and vocational education. Math and English teachers have also had success with LifeSmarts, as have homeschool and community educators.<\/p>\n<p>Additional major\u00a0LifeSmarts\u00a0contributors include:\u00a0AARP, American Express, Intuit, Melaleuca, Underwriters Laboratories, and WSECU, along with a number of state and local sponsors.<\/p>\n<p>Visit LifeSmarts.org for more information.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n<p><strong>About LifeSmarts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: LifeSmarts.org, email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:lifesmarts@nclnet.org\">lifesmarts@nclnet.org<\/a>, or call the National Consumers League\u2019s communications department at 202-835-3323.<\/p>\n<p>The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America&#8217;s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.nclnet.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[12,274,273,271,272],"tags":[333,331],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14405"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18250,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions\/18250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}