Asked by Anonymous
My high school has a bank in it, and up until this year the people working at the bank were more than willing to make change for students who needed to, for example, break a twenty. Last month, though, the rules suddenly changed, and we can't make change at the bank anymore. When asked, the lady behind the counter said that "making change for people who aren't members of the bank is a violation of the Patriot Act". Is that true? I thought the Patriot Act was something entirely different.
The USA Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56) does have some rules that impact banks and deal with money laundering. However, none of them have to do with making change for people who aren’t bank members. You can learn more about these rules from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The U.S. Department of State offers a number of exchange programs and scholarships for American high school students to study abroad.
If you’re interested in studying abroad, one of these programs could help cover expenses for your trip:
The National Security Language Initiative for Youth offers merit-based scholarships for overseas study of these foreign languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Tajik), Russian and Turkish.
The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Abroad Program offers scholarships to spend a semester or an academic year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Oman, Thailand, and Turkey.
The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program offers students a fully-funded year abroad in Germany.
The American Youth Leadership Program offers opportunities for students and educators to travel abroad on a three- to four-week-long exchange program.
Learn more about these student exchange programs.
May is Healthy Vision Month. Celebrate by learning about eye exams for kids.
Image description: President Barack Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Michigan on April 18, 2012.
Photo by Pete Souza, White House
Jacob and Sophia are America’s most popular baby names for 2011, according to the Social Security Administration.
This is the thirteenth year that Jacob has been the most popular boys name. Sophia was number two in 2010 and beat out Isabella for the top spot in 2011.
Mason is the only new name in the top ten on either list this year. It pushed Anthony off the list of boys names.
Here are the top 10 boys and girls names for 2011:
Boys
- Jacob
- Mason
- William
- Jayden
- Noah
- Michael
- Ethan
- Alexander
- Aiden
- Daniel
Girls
- Sophia
- Isabella
- Emma
- Olivia
- Ava
- Emily
- Abigail
- Madison
- Mia
- Chloe
Find more popular baby names.
