Last night, the NGPF team hosted our first ever LIVE event on YouTube in celebration of Financial Literacy Month (April) and had nearly 2,000 people tune in live! Every year, schools host festivals and school assemblies to celebrate this important month, but due to school closures this year we knew that many students wouldn't be able to participate in these experiences. But Financial Literacy Month was NOT cancelled! It's safe to say that we officially ended Financial Literacy Awareness Month with a bang!

The event started at 5pm PT/8pm ET and lasted about 90 minutes. Students, families, teachers and community members all watched "The Most Important Class You Never Had," a documentary about the need for more financial education in the U.S. and used their social media platforms for advocacy! Currently only 6 states ensure that ALL students have guaranteed access to a full semester of personal finance before graduation. And it's time to make change! 

Students posted to instagram throughout the party and tagged media outlets to ask for more attention and news coverage about this issue. Oh yes - and there celebrity appearances, which the students really enjoyed!

Congratulations to the winners from last night's LIVE scholarship giveaway:

• Abhigya Thapa Magar from Alhambra High School - Alhambra, CA
• Addison Warg from St. Louis Park High School - St. Louis Park, MN
• Andrew Renga from Notre Dame High School - Lawrenceville, NJ
• Brandi Gibson from Hope Academy - Groveland, FL
• Chloe Davis from Gateway High School - San Francisco, CA
• Dawson Bird from Fredonia High School - Fredonia, NY
• Emilee Kinaitis from FlexTech High School - Novi, MI
• Emily Archacki from Mentor High School - Mentor, OH
• Fatmah Hassanin from The Maxine Greene High School - New York, 
• Gabriela Quezada Bueno from Needham High School - Needham, MA
• Hezekiah Iyawe from Robbinsdale Armstrong High School - Plymouth, MN
• Jason Aguilar from Wheeling High School - Wheeling, IL
• Jaylen Pointer from Roxboro Community School - Roxboro, NC
• Lamar Lee from Muskegon High School - Muskegon, MI
• Lydia Nyarko from Bloomfield High School  - Bloomfield, CT
• Mahogony Jules from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School - Queens, NY
• Sandy Galvez from Keaau High School - Keaau, HI
• Sh’Naya Anderson from Palm Beach Lakes Community High School - West Palm Beach, FL
• Jacqueline Chan from Livingston High School - Livingston, NJ

UPDATE ADDED ON MAY 4, 2020: 

The NGPF Team simply could not contain our excitement about the student response to this LIVE event so we decided to add 10 MORE SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS to the list. That brings the total amount awarded to $15,000! 

Congratulations to the final winners who attend the following high schools: 

• Allyshea Oliver from Roxboro Community School - Roxboro, NC
• Dilafruz Hakimova from James Madison High School - Brooklyn NY
• Evelyn Velazquez from Everest Public High School - Redwood City, CA 
• Isabel Castanon-Torres from Brookland-Cayce High School - Cayce, SC
• Izzie Yates from Johnston High School - Johnston, IA
• Jeryn Carter from Prairie Grove High School - Prairie Grove, AR
• Matthew Tactacan from East Greenwich High School - East Greenwich, RI
• Miriam Anderson from The Alabama School of Fine Arts - Birmingham, AL
• Molly Fuller from Larry A Ryle High School - Union, K

Congratulations to ALL of the event's winners and THANK YOU to all of you teachers helping us work towards #Mission200

About the Author

Yanely Espinal

Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 2007 before going on to receive her bachelor's degree at Brown University in 2011. As a Teach For America corps member, Yanely taught third and fourth grade in Canarsie, Brooklyn. She received her master's degree from Relay Graduate School of Education in 2013. She spends her spare time making YouTube videos about personal finance on her channel, MissBeHelpful. Yanely also loves to dance, sew, paint, listen to podcasts, and babysit her 10 nieces and nephews!