Beth-Center students take first in state financial challenge
Three Bethlehem-Center High School students have been named 2023 Pennsylvania Personal Finance Challenge State Champions.
Seniors Brock Young, Hannah Zelnis and Eli Barbacow participated in the competition April 17 at the Commonwealth Charter Academy Family Service Center Waterfront in Homestead.
Joelle Lohr, math and finance teacher, selected the three from among the students in her class.
“I selected some of the kids who seemed to be excelling all year with some of the stuff that I’ve been teaching,” Lohr said.
Lohr’s math and finance class includes instruction in banking, loans, credit cards, investments and insurance.
About 20 teams from across Pennsylvania participated in the competition. They were given a week to create a presentation addressing a fictitious family’s financial challenges. Their findings were presented to a panel of judges who posed as the family.
The two top teams were selected and went head to head in a quiz bowl of financial knowledge. The Beth-Center trio won the first-place trophy, a state championship banner and a check for $2,000.
“It was very exciting,” Lohr said. “We’re a very small school and for us to go into a competition like this that we’ve never done and to come out with the win was just amazing.”
The team advances to the national competition, which will take place June 4 and 5 at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio.
The state’s inaugural competition, it was sponsored by the Foundation for Economic Education located at the Waterfront in Homestead.