Tracking recent personal finance activity at high schools across America:

• Bucks County (PA) high schools teaming up with Philly Fed (Bucks County Courier):Students in Chuck Deal’s personal finance class at Neshaminy High School will end the year knowing how to protect themselves from identity theft, create a budget and keep from getting taken for a ride when they buy their first car. Those topics, and more, are part of a popular personal finance course that draws some of its programming from one of the largest financial institutions in the country: the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
• Junior Achievement put on a full-day financial literacy workshop for Central York (PA) High School students (York Daily Record):

Central York junior Madyson Williams said she’s fortunate to have learned a lot about money from her mother, an investment broker, and her father, the vice president of a logistics company. An aspiring investment broker herself, Williams said she still learned new concepts from the activities. “Some decisions you don’t expect to make a difference can make a huge difference,” Williams said, such as investing early in a 401-K or getting a master’s degree.

• A rock band is visiting high schools…and teaching personal finance (Wall Street Journal):

Rock ’n’ rollers might be among the last people you’d expect to teach children about money and investing. Rock band Gooding defies that expectation. Let other rockers rip up hotel rooms and burn through money. This four-person band tours the country teaching middle- and high-school students about saving money and the power of compounding. Last year, the band played 26 shows, reaching 13,000 students in locations such as Wichita, Kan., and Dallas.

• Livingston (NJ) High School students teaching middle schoolers in their community about personal finance (Neighborhood News):

Livingston High School (LHS) students created a Teaching Investment and Money Management Initiative (TIMMI) club, which recently completed a four-part, comprehensive money-management education program at Heritage Middle School (HMS). The student organization, whose mission is to avoid the financial crises of the past and better today’s problems in consumerism and indebtedness, shared a central curriculum for financial literacy with 33 interested HMS students.

• Students at Plymouth High School (MA) experienced personal finance through a Reality Fair (WickedLocal.com):

Plymouth South High School students got a dose of economic reality last week during the school’s second annual Credit for Life Fair. Volunteers from 16 local businesses joined with local school officials for a hands-on demonstration on how to manage personal finances in the real world.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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