June 10, 2010
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News: FL Students Give A Lesson In Credit Card Use
Florida's residents are working at reducing credit debt and their efforts appear to be catching on. Two Seacrest Country Day School students are about to become famous for their documentary "A Credit to Our Generation: How the innovation of the credit card changed history and impacted future generations of America." Katie Burns and David Hastings made the film in response to the National History Day contest. Burns said they choose credit cards as their subject because they have seen what it has done to their generation; most adolescent use cards to pay for gas. She herself does not have a credit card or a car loan and doesn't believe she needs one. Katie said she was amazed at the price of gas when she began interviewing students for the documentary. The goal of Katie and David's documentary is to stimulate the elimination of something that is a problem but that most don't consider it a problem.
Burns and Hastings were one of 170 county entries in the contest and Seacrest School's first year participating. Every high school history student at Seacrest entered the contest. Katie and David's documentary which focuses on adolescents and credit card use is one of six projects involving 10 students that went to the state finals. Of the six, two projects, including Katie and David's credit card documentary made it to the "run-off" portion of the state competition. Their film will be competing June 13-17 in the 2010 Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland College Park.
David acknowledged having a credit card of his own and said he has observed that most of his peers don't think a whole lot about cards and their usage. He believes they should become more aware of the how them and using them responsibly. The competition involved several parts which included writing a paper, designing a Web page or make a documentary, among other things, on the topic "Innovation in History: Impact and Change." You can watch the video on You Tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY5zlVkrTrQ. Good luck Katie and David!