National Bank of Arizona (NB|AZ) announced its sponsorship of the second annual ThriveTime Challenge, a statewide financial literacy initiative that aims to educate high school students about money management.

ThriveTime Challenge, founded by the 2013 NB|AZ Woman of the Year Sharon Lechter, is a tournament involving playing the award-winning ThriveTime for Teens board game. The board game was named the 2010 Creative Child Magazine Game of the Year and takes players on a financial rollercoaster where they must make crucial life decisions like buying cars and paying for college.

“We were honored to sponsor the ThriveTime Challenge for the second year in a row,” said Deborah Bateman, executive vice president and director of wealth strategies at NB|AZ. “Financial literacy is an important initiative to NB|AZ and we are pleased to support a program that encourages responsible money management beginning at a young age.”

Each participating school hosted its own single-round tournament and winners from each school progressed to a state-level competition on April 20 at Arizona State University West campus in Glendale.

The top three finalists of the state competition received scholarship dollars ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, and the home schools of each finalist received $1,000. Participation in the tournament was free for all participating schools and students.

For more information about the ThriveTime Challenge, contact Angela Totman at angela@pyff.net or visit www.thrivetimechallenge.com. For more information about National Bank of Arizona, visit www.nbarizona.com.