To acknowledge the efforts that teachers put into their classes, NGPF Fellows have the option to award a 'Personal Finance Student of the Year Award' to one student with outstanding contributions in their personal finance class. The Fellow selects a student based on the following criteria:

• The student has taken the Fellow's personal finance class in the 2018-2019 school year
• The student has demonstrated outstanding performance in the class based on their participation, academic excellence, and passion for the subject. 

We'll showcase 2 students per week who will also share how they benefited from having a personal finance education in high school.

Congratulations this week go to:

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Student: Caedyn Wheeler

Teacher: Andrea Stemper

School: William J Palmer High School, Colorado Springs, CO

"I thought the personal finance class was very helpful in its teachings of everyday knowledge... I'm thankful I chose this class as a practical arts credit because it taught me things I thought I would have to learn on my own like filing taxes, how to do an elevator pitch, etc."

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Student: Gatlin Edwards

Teacher: Jill Thompson

School: Kelly Walsh High School, Casper, WY

"As a result of this class, I have decided to get a job, and since my parents still cover all of my expenses, I will be able to put my entire paycheck towards college savings. This will help me get through college debt-free. Since my parents insisted on buying me a car, I helped them decide not to buy me a car that is more expensive than what they had saved for a down payment. Then I told them to put the money they were planning on spending on the payments into a mutual fund. This should give me a nice head start on never having a car payment in my life. I have also decided not to have a credit card and to instead have a debit card in order to avoid that devastating buildup of debt. I have learned to closely monitor my purchases on the debit card so I don’t end up spending more money than is in my account."

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!