The following post is one in a series of inspiring stories from NGPF's Gold Standard Challenge Grant Program which incentivizes high schools and districts to commit to ALL students taking personal finance courses before graduation. Learn more, and apply for your $2,500 to $30,000 Gold Standard Challenge Grant before the August 31, 2022 deadline here.

About Today's Guest Author

Ashli Cheung is an educator at Fairhill School in Dallas, Texas. Their school is the 146th recipient of the Gold Standard Challenge grant. Here is Ashli describing Fairhill’s journey to the Gold Standard.

Describe a rough timeline for how you and/or your colleagues were able to advocate for personal finance to become a graduation requirement in your school/district. How long did it take? What were the major progress milestones?

We initially incorporated financial literacy as a component of our College and Career Readiness Class. After reading more information on NGPF's Gold Standard Challenge, we agreed that this is such an important topic. We gradually increased financial literacy content in our CCR class. After many admin meetings and discussions, our semester course in Financial Literacy was born. We are so excited to have this important class as part of our course offering and future graduation requirements!

What challenges did you encounter in your efforts to make personal finance a graduation requirement, and what solutions did you find for these challenges?

Our biggest challenges stem from building a new course and scheduling. We are fortunate and grateful for NGPF's incredible curriculum and resources and aim to create a Financial Literacy course that engages our students, builds and strengthens financial skills, and has a lasting and positive impact on our community.

What/who were the "catalysts for change" that allowed your efforts to be successful?

Our College and Career Readiness teacher Ashli Cheung took an NGPF professional development course a few years ago and it inspired her to begin incorporating more financial literacy topics into her class. NGPF's resources are incredibly engaging and have made financial literacy so much fun for our students! This year, she received an email with information on the Gold Standard Challenge. Reading more about financial literacy statistics made us realize the importance of including financial literacy as a full semester course. We are looking forward to adding such an important course to our required course list and want to thank NGPF for giving us the inspiration and tools to make it possible!

Which stakeholders (students, parents, admin, business leaders, school board, etc) were helpful partners in your quest to make the graduation requirement happen?

Our school leaders, administration, and students each had a role in making this happen!

About the Author

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