200 graduating seniors get crash course in money management

(WJBK) - They're getting ready to graduate in a few week but seniors in Detroit have one big lesson left to learn -- how to take care of their money.

Two hundred seniors from seven Detroit high schools and River Rouge High School attended the 2nd annual Financial Education & Entrepreneurial Summit on Thursday. Business leaders from around the area shared knowledge and the power of knowing your financials.

"We have to make sure this next generation -- that they're educated, they're making good decisions, and particularly, in some cases, they're underserved so the statistics bear out that the need is there and is great but the only thing we can do is our part," said Kevin Butts | COO of KS Credit Education Solutions.

Kenneth Donaldson, president and CEO of Black United Fund of Michigan, says we need to expose young people to this type of information in order to give them a chance.

"This is what this partnership is about right now, where we're having summits and expos and workshops, and we're partnering with the school systems to provide them with the information and the resources," he said.

Local students are leaving high schools financially illiterate and summits like this hope to help correct that. For the students to hear these real life lessons from real life success stories, they are immeasurable.

"Being able to know when to invest is really important to me because you don't get a lot of figures in your life that are able to tell you and guide you, a lot of times your parents don't know the answers to questions so to have someone come in and talk to you and help you with things later on in life is really beneficial," a student said.