The following post is one in a series of inspiring stories from NGPF's Gold Standard Challenge Grant Program which incentivizes high schools and districts to commit to ALL students taking personal finance courses before graduation. Learn more, and apply for your $2,500 to $30,000 Gold Standard Challenge Grant before the August 31, 2022 deadline here.

About Today's Guest Author

Julie Giglia is an educator at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in Whitman, Massachusetts. Their school is the 34th recipient of the Gold Standard Challenge grant. Here is Julie describing Whitman-Hanson Regional’s journey to the Gold Standard.

Describe a rough timeline for how you and/or your colleagues were able to advocate for personal finance to become a graduation requirement in your school/district. How long did it take? What were the major progress milestones?

We had been trying for 3-4 years with a lot of effort from the Business Department, School Counseling Department, and our Principal- Dr. Christopher Jones, and Superintendent- Jefferey Symaniak were big advocates to make the financial literacy endeavor happen. We got it done before the pandemic hit, so we were able to implement it into our curriculum.

What challenges did you encounter in your efforts to make personal finance a graduation requirement, and what solutions did you find for these challenges?

One concern was having the right amount of personnel to make it happen but we were all advocating for the effort and made it a reality. Thankfully, we had so many advocators and teachers willing to teach the course.

What/who were the "catalysts for change" that allowed your efforts to be successful?

We had many catalysts and here are a few: Business Teachers, Dr. Christopher Jones, Mr. Jeffrey Szymaniak, School Board members, Credit for Life Fair (Financial Literacy fair we hold every year)** Huge Catalyst

Which stakeholders (students, parents, admin, business leaders, school board, etc) were helpful partners in your quest to make the graduation requirement happen?

School board members, our principal, our Superintendent, School Guidance Counselors, and Business/Technology teacher were all advocating for it. NGPF is also a stakeholder they make magic happen! Thank you!

About the Author

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