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: Addison May

Teacher: Kayla Bousum

School: Johnston High School (Johnston, IA)

"Financial Literacy has provided many benefits to my money management strategies. Mrs.Bousum has provided and been a mentor for me to be cautious with my spending. Without her work ethic, I would have never seen the importance of the finance class... Truly, I don’t make enough to provide for my family or friends but, I earn enough to put 75% of my earnings in savings and allow my account to grow higher. Finally, I downloaded the “Mint” application and allow myself to sync my savings together to follow what I spend my money on. If I notice I am spending too much on unnecessary expenses, I reroute myself to not be an impulse spender. Without the knowledge of how financials can be lost so easily, I may not have reached my financial goals this year."

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Student: Benjamin Kubisiak

Teacher: Patrick Kubeny

School: Rhinelander High School (Rhinelander, WI)

"The greatest benefit I have received from money management is that I learned the details about financial concepts for which I only had a general sense... After taking money management, I now have the information to make the best financial choices. One action money management caused me to take was opening a Roth IRA. Before taking money management, I had planned to put off saving for retirement until I was out of college.  When I found out that the money can be taken out to pay for education-penalty free, I realized there was almost no reason for me not to start one, and I put $1000 in a Vanguard Roth IRA."

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!