GLADSTONE — Recently, a team of five Gladstone teachers presented at the Council for Economic Education’s 59th Financial Literacy and Economic Education Conference. The conference, which was originally scheduled to be held in Chantilly, Virginia, was held virtually as a result of Covid restrictions. It typically draws over 500 participants from across the United States, although this year the conference grew as a result of being held virtually. The Council for Economic Education’s mission is to equip K-12 students with the tools and knowledge of personal finance and economics so that they can make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities.

They carry out their mission by providing resources and training to K-12 educators and have done so for over 70 years. Nearly two-thirds of the teachers they reach are in low to moderate income schools. All resources and programs are developed by educators and delivered by their 188 affiliates across the country in every state. The Council reaches over 50,000 teachers a year through in-person professional development and those teachers, in turn, reach approximately 5 million students throughout the country.

“This [presenting at the conference] has been years in the making” said Erika Fix, the team’s leader. A few years ago, a handful of Gladstone teachers decided to create a financial literacy initiative to benefit Gladstone Area Schools’ student population. “We feel we have succeeded in that goal and now wanted to present our work so other schools and financial-related organizations could implement programs within their own communities.” The team, according to Fix, is made up of many more teachers throughout the district’s schools and has been operating for 6 years.

“When our proposal submission was accepted and we were requested to present a breakout session at this year’s conference, we were thrilled and honored to know that our work was worthy enough to be presented at such a large conference. But then it quickly became apparent that we had a lot of work to do in order to be ready for conference time. The decision for the conference to be offered virtually rather than in person created an entirely new set of challenges for us as we prepared” said Melissa Egner, a member of the team.

Since the conference was virtual, presenters needed to become familiar with the processes involved not only in presenting, but in uploading material and monitoring online interactions with participants. “It was a lot of preparation work for 45 minutes of presenting. It’s a relief to be done and to know, based on feedback from participants, that it was a worthwhile presentation.” said Jr High teacher Jon Smith. “Over 45 people from all over the country and the world participated in our breakout session” added Christy Eagle “that’s on the large side as far as attendance is concerned for a breakout session.”

Gladstone High School has offered a full year financial literacy class to high school seniors for over 15 years. The class was created as a result of a partnership between Sue Beranek, a former teacher, and Mark Tibergien, the financial sponsor who helps fund Gladstone’s Financial Literacy Initiative. Since then, the Financial Literacy Initiative has created a variety of educational opportunities for students to learn about finances. “We’ve partnered with local financial institutions, financial advisors, and businesses in order to promote good financial habits as students plan for their futures,” said Ellanie Ferrari, a team member and presenter. In addition to providing financial literacy education within the classroom, the team has worked to provide summer camps for elementary, jr high, and high school students. The camps provide interested students with the opportunity to explore financial related concepts more in-depth than in the classroom.