Anna Sherman of the Plattsburgh City School District Credit Union said opening their own savings accounts is a fabulous opportunity for the students.

"For a lot of them, this is their first experience doing anything with a financial institution. The whole purpose is to teach them to save."

Rock said the students had already set SMART -- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time measured -- goals for the class.

"After, we will go back to class and see if they met their goals," Rock said.

Students were to balance their savings-account ledgers, make sure they understood the information in the UFirst newsletter and set another short-term goal: to outline how much they planned to save in the next 30 days.

A UFirst representative will come to the school twice a week to pick up additional deposits, or students can make them in person at the Credit Union during regular business hours.

"This is the first step for a lifetime of saving and knowing how important it is," Sherman said.

E-mail Dan Heath at:

dheath@pressrepublican.com