new season – National Consumers League

LifeSmarts, NCL’s national competition for middle and high school students, launched its 21st season this week. This program teaches students the skills they need to be successful adult consumers in the real world. Every year the national championship is hosted in a different city around the country. In April we will travel to Seattle, Washington to crown a new LifeSmarts champion. This blog was written by Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts program director. 

I love that it’s September and the competition is open for the year!

I love when students tell me how much LifeSmarts means to them.

I love when educators come back year after year – then I know we’re doing something right!

I love writing questions, creating new content, and developing fun new learning activities.

I love the LifeSmarts team – what a nice group of colleagues. We work hard but we enjoy doing this work because we’re lucky – we know our work makes a difference.

I love the opportunity to work across the country – we have wonderful state coordinators and competitors from many different states, and we also get to travel to new cities each year for the National LifeSmarts Championship (Hello, Seattle!).

I love the teams – it is great to watch students come together each year for competition but learn so much about themselves and how fun it is to be a part of a LifeSmarts team.

I love that we work with partners and sponsors who believe in this program and support our work.

I love when students apply what they have learned to their real lives and when they realize, “Hey, I learned that in LifeSmarts!”

I love the personal stories:

  • A coach told me she recruited a boy to her LifeSmarts team who was apathetic about school and talking about dropping out.  LifeSmarts (and a teacher who noticed) got him to graduation instead
  • One competitor told me she was able to help her family save money because she learned they didn’t need the extra insurance they were purchasing for their credit card
  • One student told me he knew to use baking soda on a grease fire that flared up at home
  • And students love to tell me, “my parents didn’t even know that!” when they bring LifeSmarts knowledge home

I love that we make learning fun and that we’ve been doing this now for 20 years.

And I love hearing from you – please drop me a note if you want to tell me what you love about LifeSmarts:  lisah@nclnet.org.