You may have seen this recent announcement: Next Gen Personal Finance is pleased to announce a $120,000 challenge grant to Champlain College’s Center for Financial Literacy led by John Pelletier. This funding will enable dozens of Vermont financial educators to receive a graduate-level training program over the next three summers at the College. We are excited about restarting this program in Vermont which had great success earlier in the decade. Survey after survey shows teachers begging for more training to help boost their content knowledge and their confidence in the classroom. 2017 will see a dramatic increase in NGPF’s offerings to satisfy that demand.

Our ambitious plans over the next twelve months include:

• Ten one-day Fin Camps which will be teacher-centric training sessions in regions throughout the country. We are excited to have three on the calendar already! We will be reaching out to state and regional teacher networks shortly. If you have your own network of teachers and want us to run a workshop, please reach out to us. Ours is a turnkey solution in which we manage the facility, the registration process, the meals and the cost so now all we need are TEACHERS!

• Running TWO NGPF Summer Institutes (instead of one). Look for applications on our 2017 Summer InstituteS in the weeks ahead. Why two this year? 1) We had an incredible number of applications last year and felt bad having to say “no” to so many talented teachers 2) We loved the opportunity to work collaboratively with an inspiring group of educators for those 2 1/2 days last year and to use a baseball term said “let’s play two” this year.

• Professional Learning Communities (PLC) - NOTE: REPLACED BY CERTIFICATION COURSES IN 2020: Jessica initiated “PLCs” last year and will be expanding the program this year. What could be better than spending 1/2 hour a week collaborating virtually with other educators to make your projects and activities even better? Find out for yourself what all the hubbub is about by registering for one today.

• Increase the number of JumpStart National Educator Conference scholarships: Last year we provided scholarships so 22 (twenty-two teachers) from around the country could attend the NEC in Dallas. This year the number of scholarships we offer will start with a 3. Stay tuned for more details.

• Providing sponsorship support to at least 15 national, state or regional conferences. We know the important work that happens at conferences organized by JumpStart and Council of Economic Educators, both at the regional and national levels. We look forward to increasing our support for their work and also participating as presenters at these events.

While this post has focused on our plans for 2017, 2016 was quite a busy year too. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Sponsored and/or presented to more than 500 teachers at 13 conferences across the country
• Delivered the weekly NGPF podcast (yes, 52 of them) and had conversations with leading educators, authors and domain experts in personal finance (archived here)
• Sponsored 22 teachers to attend the JumpStart NEC in Dallas. We loved meeting you!
• Hosted 12 teachers at the Inaugural NGPF Summer Institute. Thank you for inspiring us with your passion and dedication!
• Over 700 teachers participated in at least one of our seven flash surveys (archived here) that provided educators with insights on what other teachers were doing about topics like technology, social media and spreadsheets
• Launched the Q&A Forum which thousands of teachers have relied upon to get answers to their questions

We are here to serve you so please let us know if you have any ideas on how we can support your work in the classroom. Thank you!

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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