On the University of Florida's Greek Row, Katie Ware did more than socialize with her fraternity and sorority friends. She taught them how to be smarter…financially.

The recent public relations graduate learned her savvy spending and budgeting tips during a Washington, D.C. internship program – MasterCard's Are You Credit Wise? – and made sure her classmates knew the secrets too.

Katie embodies the exact demographic she's trying to educate, namely twenty-something college students living away from home who are, for the first time, responsible for handling their own finances, including credit cards. "Students jumped at the opportunity to learn as much as possible about their own finances," Katie says.

She used that peer-level communication to her advantage. In addition to reaching 25-75 students in a single Greek Row visit and meetings with other on-campus organizations, Katie brought her message of responsible spending to the entire student body and even the broader town of Gainesville through opinion columns and articles in her school and local newspapers.

She did not stop at print media to expose her campaign. She managed a viral video project, gathering interviews from fellow students during classes and at football games about their financial knowledge and perceptions of the education campaign. Katie's video interviews were placed on the Are You Credit Wise? Blog so others could learn from these experiences.

In July 2009, Katie traveled to Washington, D.C., to discuss her work with the Are You Credit Wise? Program at MasterCard's Financial Literacy Seminar on Capitol Hill.

"Our hope with the Are You Credit Wise? program is that it will not only educate students about the importance of maintaining personal finances, but influence and motivate them to begin practicing these smart money management habits in their own lives," says MasterCard's Vice President of Global Public Policy, Patrick Dwyer.

Since its launch 11 years ago, the Are You Credit Wise? program has reached more than 500,000 students at more than 80 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.