Impactful Personal Finance Projects for High School

The following story illustrates how an idea about personal finance projects for high school led to many peoples’ financial stability.

Tammy was a retired high school guidance counselor who couldn’t stop thinking about the dire need for financial literacy education in high school. She wanted to create a few personal finance projects for high school students but wasn’t sure if anyone would sign up. Polling students at the high school she once worked at clearly answered her question. The poll showed an overwhelming desire of the students to learn about personal finance through games.

Tammy decided to start by developing a personal finance project for high school students. Her first step was to define the depth of knowledge the students should get out of it. They would need to develop strategic thinking around the foundations of earning, saving, spending, debt and budgeting. If she gave the program enough time, she also wanted them to understand the skills and concepts of college loan management and career planning.

How to Deliver Personal Finance Projects to High Schoolers

Tammy thought about the best way to deliver financial education to high schoolers. She decided that her personal finance projects for high school students should be presented with bi-weekly live webinars. She would provide a closed Facebook group where the students and teachers could interact and get their questions answered. To keep everyone challenged, a timeline-based presentation would be perfect.  She also wanted personal finance curriculum for her high school students that included games and activities.

Tammy thought about what subjects her students needed to know in order to manage the financial responsibilities that were soon to come. They needed to know the basics of saving, earning, budgeting and debt. Pre-Adults soon to graduate high school would particularly benefit from college loan management and career planning. The final personal finance class project might cover all of these aspects through traditional lecture wither personal finance PowerPoint presentations, a variety of games and hands-on activities..

Creating a Custom Curriculum

Tammy’s personal finance projects for high school had to follow a curriculum that was made just for them. It needed to meet established core educational requirements and be designed from evidence-based learning tactics. The exercises had to be engaging and directly relatable to the real world of personal finance that was about to be thrown at these high school students. Practical, actionable lessons would have the best chance of forming good monetary behavior and attitudes at this critical time in her students’ lives.

The right educator would add credibility to Tammy’s course and improve the chances of success. The presenter had to be qualified and experienced with high school age pre-adults. Thanks to the help of the NFEC, she found a Certified Financial Education Instructor with years of experience teaching high school finance. The instructor had a high success rate that would add legitimacy to the entire program. This instructor had taught not just one personal finance project for high school students, but many.

Results of Tammy’s High School Financial Education Program

Tammy’s personal finance projects for high school students was a smashing success. 42 students started the class and 37 finished. This gave the program an 88% completion rate, a success by any measure.

She put the data into a report that clearly exhibited the surprising results. She would use this to try to get funding and community support to expand her program past just personal finance projects for high school.