I was a high school teacher for almost 10 years, focusing on creating a curriculum with real-world connections. The first year that I taught senior mathematics, I began to hear statements like, “I have senioritis” and questions such as, “When are we ever going to use this?” once the second semester began. I got tired of it.

I decided to start a financial literacy curriculum with a heavy math focus for those seniors – because money is something we will all have to use to design the lives we want to live. The more I taught, the more I recognized the need for this type of training even in the adult world. I began to seek more resources to help me design my curriculum, and I came across the JA Stock Market Challenge.

I left teaching in 2020 to try my hand at offering a free, foundational financial education and coaching program to anyone in my community. I’m still doing that today, and it allows me to volunteer with JA often. I love what JA promotes because it covers the gamut of financial education topics that should be discussed and taught in every high school: things that are often forgotten, like optimizing our income by improving our resumes and interview skills or understanding how to network. After all, our net worth is intricately interconnected with our network.

Volunteering is such a joy because JA provides all the foundations but encourages you to personalize the lessons and spruce them up with your real-world stories and experiences, which allows us to connect with the students. The teachers are always so grateful for the perspective we provide and the chance for students to hear some of the same concepts their teacher promotes, but from a different source whom they don’t interact with every day.

I am so grateful to volunteer and drive impact with this incredible organization!