One finance class is preparing students for their stable financial future

Shrek is the only one to teach the course but hopes more teachers do as well across his and other school districts, as the class prepares students for a stable future.

“Our class is about personal finance to prepare young kids and also adults to prepare them for real-life situations, how to save money and how to invest in the stock market,” Shrek said. “It prepares them as well for college, as it helps them prepare to look for scholarships, recommendations, to have a good resume and just update it as they go. Always have good relationships with people no matter what, because they never know when they might need them someday. They must learn this.”

Many students in the class noted that they had the intention to invest later on in their life, and that the course helped them better understand how the stock market works, what they need to research when thinking about investing and when they believe it is a better time to sell. The course also taught them about interest calculators and to see how much money in return they would get depending on their monthly contributions.

Shrek states that it is important for these students to learn at such a young age about their personal finances because the longer they wait to invest or save, then the less money they will have accumulated in their future for their retirement. The teacher states that he asked the school to buy Ramsey Education software, an innovative school software program that teaches the basics of financial skills.

Shrek, who previously thought finances for college students at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, states that his high school students are equally susceptible to the information as their college counterparts, and that he presented no challenge in teaching them these important financial facts. He states that making the class fun and realistic definitely helped.

“In this class, they never asked when they would use this like in my algebra class, because this is all basic real-life situations,” Shrek said. “They already got the head start, because by the time they already finish senior year when they go to college, they already know how to budget, save money, they know how to apply to a job, how to do FAFSA.”

The personal finance lessons are not just lessons for these students but actually things they are applying in real life as well.

“I’m starting to save, as when I would get an allowance, I would usually spend it in like Dunkin’ Donuts and stuff like that, and now I am not and am saving it,” said sophomore student Theresa Cabello.

Another of the students, Matthew Garcia — who is also an outgoing sophomore — states that he also learned how to save after he started working a job during the winter break and realize that he blew his check in just a couple of days. After being in the course, he states that he has become much more financially responsible to make sure that he has money for the things he wants but also saves some money as well.

Garcia said that he wants to save money in effort to invest some early on in cryptocurrencies and in non-fungible tokens.

“The stock market stuff is what I take the most from this class, as there are a lot of different roles and things to do. But the stock market will always be there with different companies, including big companies, and there are a lot of ways of making money,” Garcia said. “Three companies I would probably invest in is Apple, Pepsi and Coke, and a little small company while it is beginning.”

Garcia states that the class helped him learn a lot about how to research to see how a company is doing and whether or not it is good to invest in it.

Shrek said cryptocurrencies are also seldomly discussed in the class, as he considers those modes of investment to be too risky and unknown, as they could cause people like his students to lose their money easily if things are not going well for the digital currency.

The importance of scholarships, grants and getting free money for college was another topic of discussion in the course, and one student states that she is ready to begin doing so as her junior year approaches.

“In our junior year, we can start applying for scholarships, and that is what I am going to start doing next year,” said Fatima Chavez. “I want to save money, and that is the best way to do so.”

Other students have said that they have talked to their parents about what they learned at school and have taught them how to use budgets to better their financial stability.

“It is important to start a budget and make sure that your budget is organized so you don’t have to be asking people for some money, because that is when you cross people and burn the bridges,” said another outgoing sophomore in Reynaldo Tijerina. “It is important to never cross people because it would look bad on you, and you will never be able to get a job. Make sure that you are honest with your money and keep it straight.”

Preparing for college with free monies is something that most students plan to do as they transition into their final two years in school.

“As of now, as a sophomore, I think that the grants and scholarships are really going to help me out, as I need to apply early and make a really good scholarship essay and research all of the free grants I can apply for in efforts to save money for college,” outgoing sophomore Shelby Rivera said.

Even though these students have different career paths they want to follow — with only a few really interested in the business world — they state that this course has helped them know how to prepare better for being financially responsible even when they get into their career paths of choice.

Rivera states that she wants to work in the criminal justice field as an attorney, and she understands that what she learned in the class is something that will allow her to keep her money safe.

Garcia states that he actually got interested in the financial and business world industry thanks to the class, as now he wants to work in real estate and invest his money. Chavez, whose mother is an accountant, said she wants to follow in her footsteps, and the course “helped solidify” her decision to want to study and be an accountant, as she finds it enjoyable.

Tijerina states that the class “opened his eyes” to new jobs in the financial sector that he did not know of. He is still looking at all the potential different career paths that he enjoys, but he will eventually choose one that provides him good stability and prosperity.

Cabello said she wants to venture into the medical field and understands the immense of money needed for medical school. But she is planning to apply for as many scholarships as possible to never get a student loan. She states that her older sister has already gotten student loans and is already teaching her the importance of keeping her finances straight by applying for scholarships instead, thanks to the class.

Shrek cannot stress enough the importance of financial classes to young high school students in order to prepare for the future, whether it is for their jobs during school, a budget or for monies they get, like grants and scholarships in college.

“We are not teaching to be stingy but to save time and money, so it is a very useful course for anyone. And all of these students should start early and all high schools should teach it, as it is real math applied in real-life situations,” Shrek said.

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