• Hall, Gainesville schools put renewed focus on teaching personal finance (Gainesville Times)

Eighth-graders in Janet Roland’s business and computer science class at Gainesville Middle School got a dose of what so many Americans appear to have a tough time doing — putting together a budget and sticking to it. Roland handed out a sheet that explained a recent class exercise for her students.

• Impact of Belmont High School’s growing enrollment (Wicked Local Belmont)

Director of Mathematics Patty Soliozy announced Personal Finance will be added to the math curriculum next year, a class that will only be offered to seniors. She said money management is a learned skill and the course will provide students with a basic understanding of financial responsibilities, how money works and how to make it work for them, before they are faced with making financial decisions later in life.

• Local Military Children Benefit from New Bentley Mentoring Program (Bentley University)

Financial literacy: In addition to creating the afterschool programing, two BSLCE students on the Hanscom team started a financial literacy workshop where they teach personal finance to students in classrooms at the middle school. This program introduces basic personal finance concepts such as how to properly use a credit card and how loans work using interactive games.

• Rohnert Park School Teams with Non-Profit for Vocational Program (Patch National)

A local non-profit and local high school are partnering together on a vocational program that aims to introduce students to the building and construction trades. The Santa Rosa-based non-profit the LIME Foundation has joined with Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park to launch a 16-week vocational program called NextGen Trades Academy.

• Girl Scout cookies at 100: How financial literacy is built with Thin Mints (The Christian Science Monitor)

It’s been 100 years since a girl scout troop in Muskogee, Okla., took over a local high school cafeteria as part of a one-time service project. Since then, millions of young girls have sold billions of cookies while developing entrepreneurial skills as the idea of a cookie-based service project has evolved into a flagship program for the Girl Scouts.

• Center for Financial Literacy gets $120,000 grant for teacher training, will restart Champlain College summer program (vermontbiz)

The Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy has received a $120,000 challenge grant from Next Gen Personal Finance, a non-profit organization that connects educators and students with free financial literacy resources. According to an announcement Wednesday, Champlain’s CFL is one of the few places in the nation that offers educators a three-credit graduate summer residency course. This nationally recognized training program was last held during the summers of 2011-2013.

About the Author

Laura Matchett

After graduating with an education degree and spending 7 years in an elementary classroom, Laura made the switch to the non-profit world and loves interacting with students, educators and business professionals across the country. She is passionate about all students having access to high quality education and views personal finance education as one way to ‘level the playing field’. When Laura is not locating or creating high quality educational resources, you can find her mountain biking or searching for the best ramen in town!