The Paycheck Project at Holton-Arms

Eighth graders at the Holton-Arms School participate in The Paycheck Project. Each student receives a job description and a matching salary. She then learns to live on a budget according to her income. Students pay taxes, purchase health insu...

The Paycheck Project at Holton-Arms

Eighth graders at the Holton-Arms School participate in The Paycheck Project. Each student receives a job description and a matching salary. She then learns to live on a budget according to her income. Students pay taxes, purchase health insurance, rent an apartment, furnish it and budget household and food expenses.

 

At each step, the student makes a budget to show her expenses and remaining funds. Students receive pertinent information about Social Security, minimum wage and equity in earning. They also have "fate cards" which insert financial dynamics they must accommodation. Students learn mini lessons that involve fund raising, the Stock Market game, global standards of living, impact of advertising, the federal budget, working class issues, etc.
 

Harpeth Hall's University Partnership

The Harpeth Hall School and Vanderbilt University's partnership pairs Upper School students with an interest in math and science with scientists and researchers at Vanderbilt. Students intern in the summer as well as in the winter through ...

Harpeth Hall's University Partnership

The Harpeth Hall School and Vanderbilt University's partnership pairs Upper School students with an interest in math and science with scientists and researchers at Vanderbilt. Students intern in the summer as well as in the winter through our three-week Winterim program. Students work alongside scientists and graduate students doing cutting-edge research.

 

"Research is an essential part of developing skills in high school that will prepare students for careers in science and technology fields. In addition, learning how to ask good questions and to define the processes to answer those questions will not only excite students about discovery and exploration, but will provide a foundation for problem-solving that will be applicable across all disciplines," said Dr. Virginia Shepherd, a professor of pathology and medicine, and associate professor of medicine and biochemistry at Vanderbilt, and the director of the Office for Science Outreach in the School of Medicine.

 

Here is what Harpeth Hall students have to say about their internships:

• In 2003, Emmie Granbery worked in the environmental engineering department at Vanderbilt, examining lead in soil. Today, Granbery is a student at the University of North Carolina. "Considering the fact that I'm now an environmental science and math major and hoping to be an environmental engineer, I would say that my high school research experience prepared me well for my future. Besides giving me experience with research methods, I also had the opportunity to contact and work with researchers at Vanderbilt University.  These were great contacts to have and in fact, I ended up working at Dr. Virginia Shepherd's 'Girls and Science' camp in the summer. The importance of establishing great research connections remained with me when I came to UNC, where I am now doing environmental engineering research in the graduate school of the School of Public Health."
   
• Kathleen Goetz, a 2005 graduate, also took her experience at Vanderbilt University and pursued it in the real world where she works in the summers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "The research program at Harpeth Hall gave me a great advantage not only in my applications to college but also in my research here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. By the time I graduated high school I had more research experience than some of my friends who are about to go to graduate college. It opened doors that would have otherwise been closed due to my young age and lack of college experience. The research I participated in has been integral in leading me to discover not only what I want to study in college but what I might want to pursue as a career. My only regret is that I did not start sooner," said Goetz, who is a student at  Middlebury College in Vermont.
   
• Catherine Highman, a senior at Harpeth Hall, interned in the summer of 2006 and studied genetic malfunctions in pediatric patients where she screened and analyzed DNA samples. "The work I did enabled me to experience real-life science at a world class research institution. I saw how research labs operate and learned how medical research is actually conducted. More than anything else, my experience in the lab gave relevance to classroom science. I got to do more than simply calculate the formula weight of a copper compound and then write a lab report; instead I was given the chance to perform experiments that dealt with actual patient DNA and produced concrete results. I was able to work alongside researches whose work directly contributes to cutting edge developments in the care and treatment of patients with genetic malfunctions. It was so exciting to be a part of his lab and get a glimpse into a field of study that I am passionate about," added Highman.
   
• Nancy Keen Palmer, a senior at Harpeth Hall, interned in the summer of 2006 and studied cognitive psychology, specifically how men and women remember items. She plans to take the research and skills from the internship and do an in-depth analysis for the International Science Fair.

 

Harpeth Hall is one of the country's premier independent college preparatory schools for girls and young women, grades 5-12. For more information, visit www.harpethhall.org.

 

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.
 

Harpeth Hall's "Winterim" Travel and Study

Harpeth Hall students are venturing  beyond classrooms and textbooks to explore global cultures and communities first-hand. 

In its third decade, the School's Winterim program has offered travel abroad programs an...

Harpeth Hall's "Winterim" Travel and Study

Harpeth Hall students are venturing  beyond classrooms and textbooks to explore global cultures and communities first-hand. 

In its third decade, the School's Winterim program has offered travel abroad programs and exchanges at South African schools.  The school program is now in its fourth year, with St. Stithians Methodist School in Johannesburg, South Africa.