Fenton High School Wins LifeSmarts State Title

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar. 8, 2013 - The Better Business Bureau (http://easternmichigan.bbb.org) today announced that Fenton High School won the 3rd annual Michigan LifeSmarts State Challenge held at Oakland University on February 22. The challenge was a ‘Quiz Bowl’ event, where nine teams fielded questions about real-life marketplace issues. This year's winning team from Fenton will represent Michigan at the National LifeSmarts Competition in Atlanta, Georgia on April 20, 2013.

LifeSmarts (http://lifesmarts.org/) is a consumer education competition that challenges teens in grades 9 - 12 with questions about personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology, and consumer rights and responsibilities and is a program of the National Consumers League. In Michigan, the LifeSmarts program is sponsored by Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan.

Bruce Burwitz, Fenton High School teacher and coach for the Fenton teams, is an advocate for the LifeSmarts program and has integrated it with his Business class curriculum. According to Burwitz, “working toward our goal of the State and National Tournaments helped make the class more interesting as we worked the program into our weekly lesson plans. This program is, by far, the easiest way to teach the foundation skills that are required in business that I've ever used. We are thrilled to be three time champions and plan to represent Michigan proudly at Nationals.”

Clio High School, first time participants, competed in the semi-final round against one of the three Fenton teams. Other teams that participated in the event were Kearsley High School and Carman-Ainsworth High School.

“It was fun and exciting to watch the nine teams face off this year in our Michigan LifeSmarts Challenge. The students were all well prepared to answer a wide range of questions in several different and sometimes difficult formats,” said Crystal Kontos, Michigan‘s LifeSmarts state coordinator. “It was great to see some new schools qualify for the competition this year. We congratulate Fenton on their three-time win and look forward their performance at the National LifeSmarts Championship.”

Any high school in Michigan can get involved in the LifeSmarts program for the 2013/2014 school year.  Students and teachers may even begin utilizing the many resources and fun activities now; well before the next season opens in September.

Administrators, teachers or home school parents interested in learning more can contact Crystal Kontos, BBB staff member and Michigan‘s LifeSmarts state coordinator at 248.799.0313 or ckontos@easternmichiganbbb.org.  

About LifeSmarts

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators implement the program locally. For more information, visit: www.lifesmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org, or call the National Consumers League‘s communications department at 202‐835‐3323. The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America‘s pioneer consumer organization. NCL‘s mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information about NCL, visit www.nclnet.org or email media@nclnet.org.

About The Better Business Bureau Serving Detroit & Eastern Michigan

The Better Business Bureau Serving Detroit & Eastern Michigan (http://detroit.bbb.org/) is a non-profit organization with the purpose of promoting trust in the marketplace by assisting in the protection of consumers and businesses from fraud and unethical business practices. In addition to its recognized dispute resolution services, the BBB maintains business reviews on the customer service history of more than 90,000 local businesses and provides consumer education materials on numerous topics. The BBB provides its services free to the public and its service territory stretches across Eastern Michigan from Ann Arbor through Metropolitan Detroit, Lansing, Flint, upward to Alpena, and covers the entire Upper Peninsula of the state.

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