Agnes Irwin School: Smart Women Finish Rich

Agnes Irwin offers two senior project offerings, Personal Finance 101 and Smart Women Finish Rich. Personal Finance is a three-hour crash course on budgeting, calculating net worth, credit cards, debit cards and college smart cards. Other per...

Agnes Irwin School: Smart Women Finish Rich

Agnes Irwin offers two senior project offerings, Personal Finance 101 and Smart Women Finish Rich. Personal Finance is a three-hour crash course on budgeting, calculating net worth, credit cards, debit cards and college smart cards. Other personal financial issues are discussed.

Smart Women Finish Rich is an overview of investment fundamentals. Discussion topics range from the role of the Federal Reserve to the calculation of margin calls to the perils of market timing. Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are covered in detail. The basics of investing are emphasized including long-term time horizons, portfolio diversification, understanding personal risk tolerance and building investment habits early.

Archer School: Beyond Simple Definitions

Archer's definition of financial independence includes, beyond issues of money, how girls represent themselves and their skills to the world, how women are treated as consumers or even as commodities, and how girls can learn to see themselves...

Archer School: Beyond Simple Definitions

Archer's definition of financial independence includes, beyond issues of money, how girls represent themselves and their skills to the world, how women are treated as consumers or even as commodities, and how girls can learn to see themselves as business people and entrepreneurs.
 

Program highlights include:

 
Faculty Training: Archer faculty work with a Certified Financial Planner to improve their own personal planning and help them bring new confidence into the classroom.

 
Bank of Archer: Students learn personal finance, including managing a checking account, saving and budgeting, and taxation. Math teachers follow a financial scope and sequence of skills through Middle School into Upper School.

 
6th-12th Curriculum: Teachers in all the disciplines and grades work with students in the classroom in many different ways. Ninth graders learn the history of money and study ancient economies. Tenth graders analyze the strategies advertisers employ to persuade consumers to spend, including commercial images of gender. Ninth and tenth grade students also buy a car or rent or buy a home on a limited budget. Eleventh graders learn how to write a resume, how to present themselves in interviews, and how to handle credit cards and debt. By senior year each Archer girl directly applies her financial skills as she prepares for the world of college and independence from home.

 
Professional Experiences: Students are introduced to various professional fields through the school's Career Day. Over 100 worksites throughout Los Angeles are opened to students who shadow professionals and engage in hands-on activities related to the field. Students and alumnae interested in internships and mentorships are assisted through a referral program.

 
Student Store: Students of every grade can participate in managing the store and associated café in many capacities. Eleventh and twelfth graders have reached top management positions and are running the business. The Store, via its Board (students), donates a percentage of the store's profits back to the Archer community in the form of financial aid, and gives as well to the broader urban community.
 

At Foxcroft, Investing With Real Money

The Foxcroft School Investment Club uses real money: $1,000! The students and faculty advisor meet to decide how best to invest the money, with any positive return going to the club. A formal learning component, taught by the school's busines...

At Foxcroft, Investing With Real Money

The Foxcroft School Investment Club uses real money: $1,000! The students and faculty advisor meet to decide how best to invest the money, with any positive return going to the club. A formal learning component, taught by the school's business manger, includes an understanding of basic investment terminology, how to research investment opportunities, national and world markets, money management and budgeting. The investments are uploaded onto the school website so the school community can monitor gains/losses. In addition, Foxcroft offers a general economics course and AP Macroeconomics. 

By My Own Merit at St. Mary's Episcopal

By My Own Merit is designed to teach young women about economic literacy and financial independence. The one-day, free program is held at the school and brings a diverse group of girls together from private and public schools. The program is ...

By My Own Merit at St. Mary's Episcopal

By My Own Merit is designed to teach young women about economic literacy and financial independence. The one-day, free program is held at the school and brings a diverse group of girls together from private and public schools. The program is designed to give girls a better understanding of a budget and the reality of income versus expenses.

Participants play the game Reality Bytes: Personal Finance in the Real World, in which they find an appealing place to live, decide what kind of car they would like to drive then take a look at salary and see if needs, wants, plans for the future add up to a balanced budget. The program was created with a grant from the Women's Foundation for Greater Memphis and in partnership with Independent Bank. Successful businesswomen (including school alumnae) serve as workshop mentors. 

Castilleja School: Micro and Macro

In addition to school sponsored talks from local stockbrokers, securities analysts, financial planners, Castilleja offers an Economics curriculum that contains units on micro and macroeconomics, international and global economics as well a...

Castilleja School: Micro and Macro

In addition to school sponsored talks from local stockbrokers, securities analysts, financial planners, Castilleja offers an Economics curriculum that contains units on micro and macroeconomics, international and global economics as well as a quarter long project on writing a business plan and a paper on securities and investing.

Columbus School's Bank Partnership

Columbus School for Girls collaborates with the Huntington Bank in a partnership program that involves 5th graders. The class sets up its own branch office of the bank and handles 'real' money. Everyone gets a real passbook which they brin...

Columbus School's Bank Partnership

Columbus School for Girls collaborates with the Huntington Bank in a partnership program that involves 5th graders. The class sets up its own branch office of the bank and handles 'real' money. Everyone gets a real passbook which they bring to school to track their savings and monies at their bank.

On a daily basis, the students count the money received (several times), stamp passbooks, record names and amounts deposited, and verify accuracy. Students apply for and hold positions at the bank. Each applies for the job that best matches her strengths whether it be a new accounts officer, customer service representative, public relations agent, security guard or a bank manager. Huntington Bank representatives and parents help with training, monitoring, and money/information transfers.

Convent of the Sacred Heart, NY - Helping Hearts

The Convent of the Sacred Heart of New York City, like many progressively-minded schools, prides itself on its outstanding community service initiatives. One program, however, is truly unique to Sacred Heart: Helping Hearts.

Convent of the Sacred Heart, NY - Helping Hearts

The Convent of the Sacred Heart of New York City, like many progressively-minded schools, prides itself on its outstanding community service initiatives. One program, however, is truly unique to Sacred Heart: Helping Hearts.

Begun in 1996 with an anonymous $50,000 grant, this student-run philanthropy club uses the interest made from this original grant plus monies its club members raise each year to donate an average of $5000 per year to community organizations. Helping Hearts members, admitted by application and interview and in the club for the duration of their high school years, read and review dozens of applications from community organizations and projects, research these organizations, read and write grant proposals, carry out extensive site visits, and vote on which organizations will receive the annual funds.

The annual theme is not chosen by the club members alone, however. Each fall, Helping Hearts representatives create a list of causes they are interested in donating to. Then, after a chapel-based presentation, the entire Upper School student body votes on the possible themes - the one with the simple majority garnering a school year's worth of research and ultimate reward.

Recent themes have included sponsoring a school in Uganda, aiding anti-hunger and homelessness campaigns, helping fund anti-domestic violence efforts, and most recently to societies dedicated to the healthcare of children with cancer and AIDS. 

Dana Hall - Managing Life

Dana Hall's Forum 11: Practical Information Managing Life covers a variety of practical information including a unit called Life Skills on personal finances. Students think through the financial implications of choosing a particular college m...

Dana Hall - Managing Life

Dana Hall's Forum 11: Practical Information Managing Life covers a variety of practical information including a unit called Life Skills on personal finances. Students think through the financial implications of choosing a particular college major or going over the limit on their credit card. A team teaching approach is used and includes a learning specialist, the school's college counselor, two math teachers and the director of studies. 

Garrison Forest - Lessons In Everyday Stuff

The Life Cycle of Everyday Stuff is a curriculum designed by the National Science Teachers' Association with a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Students are introduced to the concept of sustainable development. Discussed are as...

Garrison Forest - Lessons In Everyday Stuff

The Life Cycle of Everyday Stuff is a curriculum designed by the National Science Teachers' Association with a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Students are introduced to the concept of sustainable development. Discussed are aspects of the current economy that are not consistent with sustainable development such as a reliance on fossil fuels (non-renewable), the depletion of ocean resources by over fishing. This unit of study gives the students an introduction to how to balance economic and environmental health. 

Girls' Middle School

Seventh grade girls at Girls' Middle School enroll in an Entrepreneurial Education course. This program gives the girls the unique opportunity to experience creating and running a business of their own. Working in small groups of 3-4 girls, s...

Girls' Middle School

Seventh grade girls at Girls' Middle School enroll in an Entrepreneurial Education course. This program gives the girls the unique opportunity to experience creating and running a business of their own. Working in small groups of 3-4 girls, students write business plans, request start-up capital from investors, receive funding for their companies, make product samples, manufacture inventory and sell their products or services to real-world customers.

In the process, students learn first hand the importance of creativity, teamwork, communications, consensus-building, personal responsibility and compromise as they experience the joys and frustrations of running their own business. Twenty percent (20%) of business earnings go to charity. The remainder is divided among team members and put into a fund for future classes. 

Girls' Prep - In Shape for the Future

Financial Fitness: Getting in Shape for the Future is a financial literacy program designed to provide Girls' Preparatory School (GPS) students with the information and tools they need to meet the financial challenges they will face.

Girls' Prep - In Shape for the Future

Financial Fitness: Getting in Shape for the Future is a financial literacy program designed to provide Girls' Preparatory School (GPS) students with the information and tools they need to meet the financial challenges they will face.

The four-part program includes: speakers for the entire student body; exercises for advisory groups to heighten financial awareness; an increased emphasis on financial topics in math class; and a special four-part informational series designed especially for seniors. Among the topics covered are:

 Cost of living

 Career opportunities in finance

 Savings and investments

 Uses/misuses of credit and loans

 Power of compound interest

 Dollar value of a good education

 Reality-based budgeting

 Characteristics of good money mangers

 How spending reflects values.

Hamlin School - Cross-Curricular Economics

In the 8th grade, Hamlin students are immersed in a four-month cross-curricular economics course involving the social studies and technology departments. Students are introduced to the basic concepts of microeconomics; build their basic softw...

Hamlin School - Cross-Curricular Economics

In the 8th grade, Hamlin students are immersed in a four-month cross-curricular economics course involving the social studies and technology departments. Students are introduced to the basic concepts of microeconomics; build their basic software skills and ability to research using the Internet; gain in media literacy; and learn basic principles of economics and a sense of the value and function of money.

Each student is given a job description (including a salary and monthly pay after taxes). Students must find an apartment and furnish it. Periodically they are given unexpected financial windfalls or downturns to cope with. Students create their own spreadsheet detailing monthly income and expenses and learn how to calculate and balance their budget

In addition, they are 'given' $5,000 to invest in the stock market. They research on the Internet and select two companies. At the end of the course they analyze the returns on their stock portfolio and couple that with other aspects of their net worth

To enhance their knowledge of microeconomics students create their own small businesses for a competitive free-market bake sale. Each team develops a prospectus and then gives 'live' advertising spots during weekly school assemblies. After the bake sale, all aspects of the market are evaluated including pricing, location of vendors, products, inventory and marketing. Net profit produces a 'winner' and the money earned goes to the class graduation gift to the school.
 

Harpeth Hall

In the fifth grade, students learn to balance a checkbook. They complete six checks for the amounts they are given, make a deposit, and record the information in their check register. They then receive a "bank statement" and have to...

Harpeth Hall

In the fifth grade, students learn to balance a checkbook. They complete six checks for the amounts they are given, make a deposit, and record the information in their check register. They then receive a "bank statement" and have to reconcile their checkbooks, including mistakes that may have been made and recording interest. As a part of this project, the students visit a bank.

In sixth grade, students go on a "virtual" European tour, calculating daily expenses for food, hotel, travel, souvenirs, tours, miscellaneous expenses. They must calculate the percentage of their total budget they spend each day. Components of their research include the economic system of the country they are touring. In addition, many homework problems incorporate interest rates, comparison shopping, linear progression of prices, as well as population growth and cost of living

Both fifth and sixth graders prepare for and participate in Junior Achievement's Exchange City, in which the students get to run all aspects of an imaginary city for a day. In eighth grade, student participate in a stock project in which they invest $10,000 in three companies of their choice, monitoring the progress of the stocks each day, keeping track of the individual stock prices as well as calculating profit/loss using Microsoft Excel. At the end of the semester, each student investigates one of her companies creating graphs of the progress of the stock and presenting her information orally to the class

Through math courses, Harpeth Hall Upper School students study interest problems with different compounding periods, exponential growth, annuities, amortization, risk calculation and the stock market. In statistics, students study interpretation of financial graphics, use of standard deviation as a numerical measure of risk, probability, statistical inference and perform a stock market exercise

In social science classes, students participate in more in-depth study of economic systems, including taxation, foreign aid, the federal budget, the Federal Reserve System, banking and banking laws, consumerism, historical economic issues, economic policies both here and abroad, and many others

A Winterim course, Women and Finance, covers balancing checkbook, paying taxes, social security, saving money, spending money, culminating with sound investing advice on stocks, bonds, mutual funds. The Winterim Designing Women course covers mortgages, calculating monthly payments, and the total payoff over the life of the mortgage. Students discuss different types of mortgages and how to decide which forms of financing work best in different situations.
 

Julia Morgan School - Forum for Entrepreneurs

Julia Morgan's middle school students benefit from a curriculum in financial literacy. In the 6th grade a financial planner and math teacher join forces to teach basic budgeting (expenses, savings, loans, philanthropic contributions) and conc...

Julia Morgan School - Forum for Entrepreneurs

Julia Morgan's middle school students benefit from a curriculum in financial literacy. In the 6th grade a financial planner and math teacher join forces to teach basic budgeting (expenses, savings, loans, philanthropic contributions) and concepts relating to credit cards and interest. The students are given a job and salary and matched with a partner with a different income. Together they must find housing, furnish their space, provide for living expenses, pay off loans and donate a certain percentage of their earnings to a worthy cause. Each does a research project on a company in which they might be interested in investing.

In the 7th grade, girls learn about the stock market using the Stock Market Game. Investment Clubs are formed and school teams compete. Students learn about real estate, bonds and savings plans, as well as  interest rates, how to balance checkbooks, and the dangers of credit card debt. A favorite part of the curriculum is an imaginary shopping spree. The girls calculate accrued interest on their purchases and pay off time.

In the 8th grade, the school collaborates with the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, using their mentors and participating in their Early Start program (how to write business plans, design a marketing strategy and their own business cards). Their business plans are reviewed by real financial planners. Social studies is woven into the project as girls determine how they will pay their workers and what health benefits they will provide as employees.

During the summer, Dollar Divas is on the curriculum. In this class, girls learn how to start a business. They write a business plan and learn about marketing, management, executive summaries and the world of finance.
 

Kent Place - Lessons K through 12

Students K-12 deepen their financial literacy through the school's curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, students begin to learn coin names and money values. They engage in a money exchange game, build and operate a store, price food, and ope...

Kent Place - Lessons K through 12

Students K-12 deepen their financial literacy through the school's curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, students begin to learn coin names and money values. They engage in a money exchange game, build and operate a store, price food, and operate cash registers. They build on this knowledge through fifth grade, during which time they learn how to apply mathematical skills like multiplying, estimating, and finding fractions to monetary concepts.

In Middle School, students learn about economic systems, free markets, currency (e.g., cash, checks, debit and credit cards), the business cycle, supply and demand, scarcity, the inequality of world wealth, tax calculations, investments, interest, and banking procedures.

In Upper School, students may take an advanced placement economics course, where they can explore microeconomic and macroeconomic principles, study the ideas of important economic thinkers, immerse themselves in the accomplishments of entrepreneurs, and analyze current financial news. Within this course, they track and graph data on the Dow Industrial Average, the NASDAQ, the GDP, unemployment rates, the CPI, and consumer confidence. Each day, they also examine articles from their online subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal, while also maintaining economic diaries, through which they relate economic concepts to financial articles and their own everyday activities.

They also complete a research project focused on specific economic ideas, and they engage in the NCEE/SIA stock market competition, for which they create a portfolio and develop reports on their stock investigations. Each student also has the opportunity to visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where she can speak with specialists and observe trading firsthand.

Kent Place faculty also participate in community outreach opportunities around money and finance, and Kent Place parents often lend their expertise in the field to students and members of the school community throughout the school year.
 

Lincoln School - Executive Connections

Lincoln School sponsors a seminar for its junior/senior students taught by local corporate executives designed to enhance students' financial literacy. Green Power: Financial Education for Girls will acquaint students with basic financial pla...

Lincoln School - Executive Connections

Lincoln School sponsors a seminar for its junior/senior students taught by local corporate executives designed to enhance students' financial literacy. Green Power: Financial Education for Girls will acquaint students with basic financial planning concepts, teach money skills and the meaning of personal financial responsibility, and discuss the idea of investing. Two workshops, one about paying for college, and the other about understanding credit, debt, and fraud are offered. 

Marymount High School, California

AP Economics, a one semester course, is offered at Marymount School. It emphasizes the fundamentals of economics, supply, demand, how businesses operate, banking, the role of government, monetary and fiscal policy, GDP, unemployment, and glob...

Marymount High School, California

AP Economics, a one semester course, is offered at Marymount School. It emphasizes the fundamentals of economics, supply, demand, how businesses operate, banking, the role of government, monetary and fiscal policy, GDP, unemployment, and global economics. 

Marymount School, New York

AP Economics, a one semester course, is offered at Marymount School. It emphasizes the fundamentals of economics, supply, demand, how businesses operate, banking, the role of government, monetary and fiscal policy, GDP, unemployment, and glob...

Marymount School, New York

AP Economics, a one semester course, is offered at Marymount School. It emphasizes the fundamentals of economics, supply, demand, how businesses operate, banking, the role of government, monetary and fiscal policy, GDP, unemployment, and global economics. 

Miss Porter's School

Miss Porter's supports a four-year financial education curriculum. In the 9th grade students learn how to manage their money, including discussing savings and checking accounts and debit and credit cards, as well as how to be a responsible fu...

Miss Porter's School

Miss Porter's supports a four-year financial education curriculum. In the 9th grade students learn how to manage their money, including discussing savings and checking accounts and debit and credit cards, as well as how to be a responsible fundraiser and donor. Tenth graders review budgeting and the financial variables that need to be considered when living on a paycheck. Credit card and consumer debt also are reviewed.

In the 11th grade, students focus on investing, risk versus return considerations and growth through compound interest. In the last year of the curriculum, seniors participate in a resume-writing workshop and discuss choosing and preparing for careers with a panel of alumnae. Volunteering and philanthropy are also discussed.
 

Nashoba Brooks - Girls, Math and Money

Girls, Math and Money, a sixth grade curriculum at Nashoba Brooks School, engages girls in 'real' math (fractions, decimals, percent, computation) and concurrently generates an understanding of the power of economics and the satisfaction of h...

Nashoba Brooks - Girls, Math and Money

Girls, Math and Money, a sixth grade curriculum at Nashoba Brooks School, engages girls in 'real' math (fractions, decimals, percent, computation) and concurrently generates an understanding of the power of economics and the satisfaction of having financial choices. The curriculum is divided into units:

1. real life simulation based on the model of an independent woman who is educated, employed, looking for housing, purchasing/maintaining a car, meeting living expenses;

2. 'practicing' investing money using a sample portfolio and learning lessons in markets, currency, exchange rates, investment options, tracking;

3. a visit to a financial institution that includes a presentation from the director of equity research, a personal on-site analysis of each girls' portfolio;

4. a look at history beginning with the Ancient Romans to examine the impact of the power of money and property in a woman's ability to create positive change is within and beyond her family circle.