In the fall of 2022, we started the Personal Finance Club at Collegiate, which in its first year became the most popular student club at our school. We all were interested in finance and had some introductory knowledge about investing, but we realized that our school had no curriculum that teaches the basics of personal finance. The purpose of our club is to give students a grounding in financial literacy – both as a life skill and as a potential course of study. We welcome external speakers (e.g. parents, alumni, friends of the Collegiate community) to discuss various topics (spending, saving, debt, investing, entrepreneurship) that could help the students in their lives now or in the future, whatever they decide to pursue.

Having now run for 2 years, the club has been a huge success. Students are engaged, the speakers have been excellent, and even teachers have sat in on some of our sessions. Thinking about our achievements, we recognized that these personal finance lessons would also be valuable to students at other schools, especially under-resourced public schools.

We did some research and learned that typically, schools (both public and private) do not teach basic financial literacy, and many students don’t learn it at home. We saw a burning need to bring this essential knowledge to middle school kids who are far less likely to get exposure to it.

Harnessing the knowledge we gained through outside research and the Club, this fall we developed an interactive and fun 45 minute workshop to convey the core principles of personal finance to middle school-aged students. We contacted numerous public middle school administrators to offer to present our workshop in their schools. We first presented our workshop to Collegiate middle schoolers and teachers, and it was enthusiastically received. We then visited JHS 98 in the Bronx and presented to 5 middle school classes, which was greatly appreciated by the students and faculty. This spring, we also led a workshop at Publicolor, and the students were engaged and asked great questions. We then partnered with Publicolor to visit the Corona Arts and Sciences Academy in Queens, where we presented to around 100 students. By the end of our presentation, the students demonstrated their understanding by explaining the concepts in their own words.

In total, we have already made an impact on over 300 students. We’re currently in discussions with other public schools throughout NYC for visits in 2024 as we look to expand our outreach and help students across the city.

In a city with enormous financial disparities, we believe that education is an important way to narrow the gap.