When Mayanna Hemenway heard that two UF students were visiting to teach her high school financial planning class, she said she pictured herself staring blankly, her mind numbed by material she didn’t care about.
She thought wrong.
“It could definitely be useful later, especially if I do something with finance,” she said.
Hemenway is just one high school student who has learned about financial literacy from Moneythink.org, a student organization started at the University of Chicago. The newest chapter of the organization, American Investment Fellows, began at UF this year with its first 10-week curriculum for economics students at Buchholz and Eastside high schools.
“Our goal is to make it interesting for them,” said Nirav Patel, the chapter’s president. “We feel like they get more practical, hands-on experience than what the books tell them.”
Patel and fellow teacher and vice president of the chapter John Colby visit Buchholz High School for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Eastside High School for three hours on Thursdays. The curriculum focuses on teaching goal-setting, saving and budgeting, debt and credit, economics, investing, entrepreneurship and current events.
Michele Brothers, teacher and director of the Academy of Finance at Buchholz, said she has seen other college students come into her classroom before, but it wasn’t like this.
“I thought this was a gift from above,” she said.
Patel started American Investment Fellows at UF because he thought his teaching offered Gainesville high school students something different from what they would get in the traditional high school classroom.
“As college students, we can relate to high school students more than some teachers,” Patel said.
Frances Vandiver, director of UF’s P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, said the program’s curriculum provides the students a way to see their future in a different light.
“Engaging activities make all the difference in the world, “ Vandiver said.
