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

Kim Lorenz is an educator at Hatton Eielson Public School in Hatton, North Dakota. Their school is the 35th recipient of the Gold Standard Challenge grant. Here is Kim describing Hatton Eielson’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?

In our state it is a requirement that all school districts provide some type of financial program, we used to have the social studies teacher teach finance in POD. Through talking with the administration, we were able to offer a semester of Financial Literacy to our sophomores. It took about 3 months to get the board to vote on the requirement that we need to have this part of our graduation platform at Hatton Eielson Public School.

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

My main challenge was to get the administration and school board members to understand that we needed to make this a requirement voted on by the board. This took the longest because we needed to have it approved in two separate board meetings.

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

The catalysts for change at our school were my principal, superintendent, and our board members. They work hard to do what is best for our school district and community.

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

Our administration is very helpful and understanding how important it is for students to know about the financial responsibilities students need to have when they go out into the world beyond high school. Once I explained to my principal and was excited to get the wheels turning.

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