Manatee County high school students get a glimpse of the 'real world'

The Big Bank Theory program teaches high school seniors financial literacy skills to prepare them for life after high school.

By Liz Ramos
| 5:00 a.m. November 13, 2023
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Heidi Stenberg, Caymen Corscadden and Calli Phillips, seniors at Lakewood Ranch High School, are ready to take on the Big Bank Theory to see if they can balance the budget of their fictional lives.

Manatee-Sarasota

Rather than being a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School in east Manatee County, Cayman Corscadden stepped into the future on Nov. 6-7.

In this case, Corscadden lived the role of a personnel recruiter, and setting up her finances on the salary that goes along with it.

It was part of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce’s annual Big Bank Theory. Big Bank is a financial literacy program presented to all 12th grade students in Manatee County Schools. Volunteers from the business and civic community, according to the chamber, work in one of more than a dozen stations that require the students to consider the financial responsibilities of a 25-year-old adult with, like Corscadden, an assigned job and salary. Students make spending decisions such as whether to buy a new car, a used car, or a bus pass all while trying to stay within their budget.