How to Utilize Free Financial Literacy Resources in Your High School Counseling Program with Alyssa Lyons [Episode 67]

Alyssa
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of High School Counseling Conversations. I’m bringing on a guest named Alyssa today to talk about financial literacy in our school buildings. This is something I’m really excited to bring to you because with her expertise and my enthusiasm behind the topic of financial literacy, I know you’re gonna walk away from here with some actionable steps on how to implement some free resources into your high school counseling programs.

Lauren
So we are coming up on April, which is Financial Literacy Month. And so I thought this would be the perfect time to have a guest on here to talk about this topic. Let me introduce you to Alyssa as we’re getting started. As a former educator and now principal of education content for the educational technology company EverFi, Alyssa Lyons is passionate about providing all students with equitable access to lifelong skills. She believes that education is a community effort that happens in and out of the classroom.

Lauren
And I think Alyssa’s bio right here just fully embraces what we talked about in this episode. We talk about financial literacy and the need for it to be equitable for our students, for everyone to have access to this knowledge. We talk about how it’s a whole community effort, this is not just one more thing for a counselor to have to implement on their own.

Lauren
We’ll talk about partnering with teachers, community members, parents, and just all of the value that financial education can have generationally up and down like for a future of a family, but also for a student to empower their parents, their grandparents with the things that they’re learning in the classroom. So let’s jump on in. I know you’re gonna love this episode with Alyssa Lyons from Eve Fi

Lauren
You got into this profession to make a difference in your students lives, but you’re spread thin by all the things that keep getting added to your to do list. I can’t create more hours in the day, but I can invite you into my Counselor Clique where you’ll finally catch your breath. Come with me as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that will help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your students. I’m Lauren Tingle your high school counseling hype girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job.

Lauren
Hey, Alyssa, thanks for joining me today. I’m excited to hear what you have to say about financial literacy.

Alyssa
Yeah, so wonderful to be here today. Thank you for making this spot for this really important, sometimes scary topic. So I’m excited to kind of break down things, talk about the importance and just elevate how it’s an integral part of our lives.

Lauren
Yeah, so I already introduced you to the audience, but that you are from EverFi and so we’ll get into, you know, what EverFi is all about. But I am just excited to dig into financial literacy because I do feel like it’s this gap that high school students recognize that they’re not always getting.

Lauren
It’s like one of those real world skills that they say, Oh, I just wish I could know how to budget, you know, or save money. And they’re complaining because they feel like they’re learning all this stuff in school that has nothing to do with the real world. But we’re missing this big piece that we could be in there helping our teachers and our students with financial literacy. Is that kind of where y’all were coming from in developing some curriculum for students?

Alyssa
Certainly, yeah, I think we are all about to feel that come mid April and tax time, or like, you know, you get frustrated of a certain question, or you look at your finances, and why wasn’t this something that I had earlier in life so that I wasn’t so frustrated at this point where I am, and we want to remove that feeling for our students and for future generations.

Alyssa
But yeah, that’s where we started from so EverFi is, you know, a little bit of a funky name. And where that really comes from is the fi and EverFi is focused on financial literacy, and they Ever is making sure that everyone has access to it.

Alyssa
We started around 2008. So if you think about what was happening in our economy in the housing market in 2008, our founders went out into the community and said, listen, we know this is a stressful time. What would you change? What would you want to see?

Alyssa
And loud and clear from the community, especially from the education community. They said, financial wellness, financial literacy, like why are we in this spot? Why didn’t we have the tools already instead of being reactive to situations that are out of our control? Why aren’t we proactive? Why don’t we have the cushion to handle these situations that are going to happen?

Alyssa
So we started at the high school level where it was the what we felt at the time the greatest inpact because you were about to set out into, quote unquote, a real world. So we created a curriculum focused on really the basics, the banking basics, the budgeting basics, the insurance basics, and provided that to schools at completely no cost, thanks to incredible funders. And then from there, it grew into this nation wide support from large entities that believe, too, that to invest in our community for the future, we have to do it within our classrooms.

Lauren
Yeah, I love let’s go all the way back to when you said it’s for everybody. Like yes, to be able to provide that in a school setting is incredible, because we like to think that these conversations are happening at home around the dinner table starting with parents, but that’s not always the case. And I’d be curious to hear kind of what your growing up looked like around financial literacy, or what was learned or not learned in the home.

Lauren
For me, it was kind of something like, as a whole, you didn’t really talk about like, finances can feel taboo. But at the same time, I know that my parents were trying to instill some responsibility in me, like, I had a job. I was saving money. But I didn’t know anything beyond that, like about student loans, or you know how much I should really be saving, or spending, or giving just the whole mentality around money.

Lauren
And that has really shaped that started shaping me. But as I got older, it’s something that my husband and I are actually really passionate about. That’s why I was excited to have you on here to talk about this. So what was your experience like growing up around financial literacy?

Alyssa
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think you hit a nail on the head, there is like the mentality around it. It is very much a generational thing. I think maybe our parents grandparents, it was like, Oh, you don’t talk about it, you don’t share, you know, how much you make or like, where your money is, Keep it under your mattress. You know, if you have people that are like that, and that family.

Alyssa
So I think it’s breaking down the barriers to of actually talking about why money is part of our lives and how to manage it. And I was very, very fortunate growing up that my parents took an active role, I would say and trying to talk to me about money now, did I really pay attention to it?

Lauren
Right? I think that’s what we would all say.

Alyssa
Yeah. But I, you know, my father came from a background of where it was a very unstable household. And he came from a single mother raising four children. And so he watched his mother struggle. And that wasn’t something that he wanted for himself or for children, for his children.

Alyssa
My father is an entrepreneur, so he had to figure out money, right? There was no HR department, there was no accounts payable department, it was all of him figuring out the money so that we could handle all of this. So it was a little bit more of the conversation. But mainly, it was around. Here’s a check. Do you see what this is? How do you fill this out? What does this look like?

Lauren
So you have some like really practical tools? It was like even maybe less conversation? But like, this is what we’re doing with this?

Alyssa
For sure. Yes. And I think it really started was, you know, when you would go to the bank, and they would put like the checks or the money in the little tube.

Lauren
As a kid that makes you curious? Or like, where’s that going? What are they doing with that?

Alyssa
It’s amaing. You put it in there and then a lollipop comes out. This place is great. Like I want to be here all the time. So that was where it kind of like alright, if you’re gonna be like, nosy into what I’m doing here, let me show you exactly what this looks like and how to fill this out.

Alyssa
You know, he would try to teach me again, I would say my father did a wonderful job now if I paid attention, but like to balance your checkbook. And then also the stock market. My father loves to like, teach me about how the stocks raise and fall in the prices and what looks good. And there. I wish I would have paid attention more. But it was at least part of the conversation where I felt like I had somebody in my back pocket that if I had a question, or if I felt like I was in an uncomfortable situation, and I needed to ask for advice around money, that he was knowledgeable and willing to help for sure.

Lauren
Yeah, that’s so cool. Okay, Alyssa, tell me just from your experience in schools, where are you seeing students coming out of graduating with gaps like in those soft skills in those life skills and financial skills? Where are you seeing the biggest gaps? Yeah,

Alyssa
So I’ll kind of go in a timeline. But I think back to my experience as an elementary teacher, and third grade. So we would bring out our math unit on coins and bills. And my students would just look at me and be like, what in the whole world, or like, I don’t understand what this is. They would try to unwrap them is there chocolate in here? I wish.

Alyssa
So at that point to me, it was alright, or this generation coming through, like, we don’t really use cash. I almost never have cash on.

Lauren
Right?

Alyssa
Right. If I need to pay something, I get Venmo out, or I have my phone with me, or they see their parents swiping cards at that point. So going back to the basics, but also, the basics that we’re used to are changing. So we need to get students used to not only the tools, but the mentality around money is different when you don’t physically see it.

Alyssa
And then I think, too as an implementation specialist, we would go into classrooms too and the very first classroom that I went into, I remember loving it, because we had some guest speakers there from a local bank. And the students were really intrigued, because they were ready to open accounts. And one of the guests said, How do you know that you have enough money on your debit card when you go to the store? And this girl in the front row was so excited, we’re so proud of her, she raises her hands and she says I swipe the card, and then I say a little prayer.

Lauren
Just hope for the best.

Alyssa
Just hope for the best, you know. Maybe you got to put an item back or something or you know, you’ve got your overdraft fee coming through. So I think again, it was just this mentality of it’s there, but how do I actually implement it. And we don’t know these things until we ask our questions to the students and to the families.

Alyssa
And then what’s also a little scary sometimes is maybe I as an educator don’t feel that confident in talking about finances, I don’t want to give them incorrect information, or I don’t want to give them information that maybe the mentality is different at home, about certain things.

Alyssa
So I think it’s that whole approach of it’s not a set class, it’s not just one class for one educator needs to know the basics and checking it off in six or nine weeks. It’s talking to our students about the things that they are actively seeing today. And my goodness, has the pandemic really brought that to light. The economy is in the conversation of everything we do.

Alyssa
If you have your kids going to the grocery store with you, and you talk about prices of things, or maybe why we’re not buying as much meat or maybe you can’t have that Lunchable that’s a little more expensive now. Or just talking about the inflation of okay, maybe we can’t do the activities that we did before because I do have to spend more money on the basics instead of having the going out to eat and, and activities like we did before.

Alyssa
Or maybe your jobs are being affected. So I think it’s this whole mentality of it’s not just understanding the money, and the numbers between things, but the mental health, the physical health, the entire community’s health. I could go on and on about how they’re all created. But this is not a one person job to solve. It’s in all of us to just integrate it in everything we do.

Lauren
Yeah, and I think it sounds like it can be an intimidating thing, whether you are the educator or you’re the one learning about it, like students maybe hear fear in their parents voices, or their teachers voices, like I’m not gonna make enough or we do have to have sacrifices and like, that’s kind of scary. What does that mean?

Lauren
And then from the educator side, like, they might not have a healthy understanding of their own financial literacy, let alone then to teach it to somebody else. Or they just have different viewpoints, like everybody can have a different thing that they find important when it comes to financial literacy. Like you might be a natural saver, you might be a natural spender, but it’s important to recognize your own habits, and then be able to kind of teach some basic concepts. So I think that’s where EverFi comes in and helping with those basic concepts. Right?

Alyssa
Yeah. And I love how you said that too where it can be scary. And sometimes we could talk about money in a fearful way. And I think I just did so…

Lauren
No. But like, it can feel like that. That’s real.

Alyssa
Yeah, yeah. And it can be and, you know, that’s where we want to empower. Like, look at the things that you can do if you save a little bit here and there. Like you said, you saved for your very first job. That’s something that you can actively do right now. You as a student or as a child that receives maybe, I don’t know if kids get checks anymore. If you get something for your birthday, like you can put a little bit away and it’s fun to watch that money grow. How can you make it grow even more?

Alyssa
Or even like maybe you’re really passionate about doing something that is creating your own pathway, your own career. You want to open your own business, you know, the money behind that and creating the investment of it and making the connection so you have investors is exciting, that’s positive.

Alyssa
So yeah, I think there are a lot of positives behind it. And it’s like, everybody’s personality is going to be a little bit different. Some people are going to waver towards and whatever, let’s just spend it all and have a good time and others are going to hold on to it a little more tightly. But at least they know their options is the the big goal here.

Lauren
Yeah. And then maybe thinking long term. Why do you believe that financial literacy is important in our schools right now for students?

Alyssa
Yeah, I think it’s that generational wealth conversation. It’s helping students empower not only themselves, but their futures, and helping themselves and their families, weather any storms or make the life that they want. You can have the power to do a lot of things when you feel confident in your financial security. And just knowing that it’s not a taboo conversation, and there are going to be up times and downtimes and how we handle that.

Alyssa
I hope that’s what these students starting as early as elementary school, and then really having the opportunity to put it into practice and see the variety of opportunities from the basics to you know, we have a brand new course on sustainable investing. Looking at investing in companies that are doing good in our world. How can that help us as a world? So I think there’s just so much opportunity there.

Lauren
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Lauren
Well tell us in a perfect world, what would it look like to incorporate financial literacy into the classroom setting? How do we do it? What kind of lessons do we do? Like how does that all worked together for especially for busy high school counselor? How did they help with that?

Alyssa
Yeah, exactly. I just have to give a plug as like somebody that’s in education. And as a former educator, give the counselors less to do.

Lauren
All the all the listeners said, Amen.

Alyssa
Yeah. Less to do less students on your dockets, for sure. But again, we can never tackle anything as one person. So I think it is an entire let’s start at the state level. We’ve got more states that are requiring financial education, which is amazing. So it shouldn’t live in just one classroom or one track. It should be required for all students.

Alyssa
And it should be owned by all of the educators in that school. How does this integrate to what you’re already doing? Yes, maybe freshman year, there’s a basic financial education course. But if you’re teaching history, if you’re teaching math, if you’re teaching civics like there should be some conversation about financial wellness, so integrated into all of our subjects and around that conversation.

Lauren
And so I hear you say this is not just a counselor’s role. It’s like a whole whole school community role.

Alyssa
Yes, the counselors can be the catalyst to this, because you are the ones closest one to see. You have probably yourself seen if there’s financial things happening in the household that’s going to reverberate through that students experience coming into school.

Alyssa
And if you’re thinking about setting your high school students up for success, whether they’re going to secondary education, whether they’re going straight into the workforce, financial education is something that’s going to make them understand what loans are out there and the predatory loans. What do I need to be able to start into the career path immediately and set myself up, like, transportation wise, W2s, filling these out. What does that look like? All of those conversations so that when I step outside of the school, I feel prepared.

Alyssa
Financial wellness, and education is not just the counselors role, but the counselor can certainly be a catalyst for larger conversations. And that’s why we’re so proud at EverFi that we have an implementation team that comes and works with your admin that works with your educators, and make sure that the resources are implemented with fidelity, and that you have a local person that’s there, through this whole journey.

Alyssa
We’ve been working with schools for 13-18 years at this point, making sure that every year it’s in a good spot. And it’s not something we just hand over and say, alright, turn on computers and go. It’s something that you have the community support, where you bring in guest speakers, you’ve got the standards alignment, everything that you need to really support your students.

Lauren
Okay, wait, tell me more about the implementation, like the physical person who comes to your school? I did not know this piece of it.

Alyssa
No, yeah, it’s my favorite piece, mainly because I used to be one. But also, it really keeps us connected to our folks. But every single school has a local implementation specialist that will be on call when you need them. So they will come out to the classroom and help you set everything up. They will align it to your curriculum and to your standards. They will connect you with local organizations if you need guest speakers.

Alyssa
Or if you need maybe somebody to come in and help your students set up accounts, or let’s go through a tax simulation, let’s pretend that we’re filling out our taxes or W2s. This is your local person for life, as long as you want them.

Lauren
That’s great.

Alyssa
And then this local person too does work with your district admin, so if you ever need anything as far as board approval, if you need IT support getting on Clever and Classlink, there are folks that set that all up for you. Because again, that conversation around making sure that you don’t feel like this is your sole job to make sure that financial education is created. And in everything because you have a ton on your plate.

Alyssa
Majority of our implementation specialists are former educators so we walk the walk and, you know, speak the speak. And it’s also something where we want the educator input as much as possible. How can we create this to be better for you? How can we make sure that what time that you’re spent on these subjects are well spent? And well, impactful?

Lauren
That’s cool. So it sounds that part sounds not intimidating to me. Like if you’re not a techy person, if you’re not, you know, you don’t even know where to start, you use your implementation guide is the actual person who’s going to help you out that sounds really cool. Can you think of any student success stories like off the top of your head or a school that used your financial literacy curriculum, and you have some like celebrations or big wins from that?

Alyssa
Yeah, definitely. We actually have a video up on our YouTube of two college students that used EverFi financial literacy and high school. And were able to support themselves as first generational college students and opening up getting different scholarships, opening up accounts where they’re working, and they’ve got that the impact of the savings is being shown. And then they were also able to support their families and saying, this is how we’re going to handle college as a family. Here’s how.

Lauren
Wait, that’s so cool.

Alyssa
Yeah, so it’s really, really sweet. We were able to connect with them. They’re at two different colleges, I will have to send it to you.

Lauren
Yeah, we’ll have to link that in the show notes because I feel like that would be a really inspirational video just for counselors to say, hey, here is where my students could go after using some financial literacy, you know, educational tools. Like we want to see our students succeed in life after high school. And when you said, Well, we were talking before, kind of talking about how this affects a family generationally.

Lauren
This is also really neat, because it can almost have this reverse. I don’t I’m sure there’s a term for it. But like the reverse generational effect, where students now are being empowered to teach their parents their grandparents things that maybe they didn’t have access to when they were younger.

Alyssa
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think it’s something that I know that I’m still going to my parents and showing them how to use certain tech tools.

Lauren
Yeah.

Alyssa
So our students are the stewards for almost all generations right now because they are so tech savvy, and everything is through and they’re paying each other when they go out to eat on Venmo. Right? Like they know how to do that. But there’s also this sense of I’ve heard stories where their grandparents have maybe been victims of fraud.

Lauren
Yes.

Alyssa
So if they have received like a text or an email or call, and the parents have given up finances or life savings, the students are there to come back and talk to their grandparents and say, alright, here’s how we’re going to build up. Here’s we’re going to give you the education of warning signs, and what to look for, and how to understand spammy emails so that they are protected as well.

Lauren
Yeah, and I think our students are at such an advantage in that way right now, like they are tech savvy. They’re, they’re actually probably more street smart than we give them credit for. Like, I don’t think a student is going to click on an email that says, you know, we need all of your personal information. I think that they’re like, looking out for that kind of stuff because you know, they don’t want their Instagram or Tiktok hacked or something. But they’re aware of it.

Lauren
And so they’re able to turn and say, Hey, from the tech side, here’s what we need to be aware of. And then the parents still have that foundational, a lot of times they have just those life skills that they have lived through either mistakes, or celebrations and successes with their finances, that like it really becomes maybe a family conversation once we’re involving both parties together, and just starting the conversation.

Alyssa
For sure. And that’s what it’s about. That’s the empowerment piece. I remember myself as a high schooler, I knew it all.

Lauren
Oh, exactly.

Alyssa
Don’t tell me what to do. But if I know that my parents have made mistakes, and they can admit to them, and they can share with me the mistakes. But then also, I feel like I’ve got some power in the conversation where, look, this is where I learned at school, that we want to have a higher interest account, like let’s go and open up this higher interest account together. And so if there’s a piece there where students feel like they anytime that we can empower them to have choice, this is an opportunity for it.

Lauren
Yes. Okay. I think you mentioned a few of the kind of courses inside of EverFi. Will you tell me maybe in detail, some more of those? Like you mentioned budgeting. What are kind of the main things that a counselor can expect if they log into EverFi or they see a student account? What are students learning inside of there?

Alyssa
Yeah, definitely. So our financial education, kind of package as you would call it is our largest that you will see all different kinds of avenues that you can take. But I really suggest to counselors to start with our flagship, which is EverFi financial literacy. So very easy to remember.

Lauren
And this is all free, right? We have haven’t even said that. I know that’s I thought about that for a second. You said package. I was like, I want to make sure they know like this is this does not cost anything for anyone.

Alyssa
Yes. And there’s no yes, yeah, I should use a better verb for that. There are a noun for that. But there is no cost to anything that we ever do. So everything is completely free. It is all web based. So you can just go on and log on right now and access everything. It is also all the implementation is part of that too.

Alyssa
So having your implementation specialists be part of the conversation, part of your classroom, that is all completely at no cost as well, because of those funders that we have, for example, MassMutual Foundation, Citizens Bank. Even outside of the financial realm we have courses that are sponsored by the NFL, the NHL, UBS, just a ton of really amazing partners in making sure our students are empowered.

Alyssa
So you’ll see kind of those logos here and there, but that is who is funding all of it. And there’s also scholarships by those folks too. But I would say you know, start with a flagship, which is EverFi Financial Literacy. This is one where it has seven lessons. So all of our courses as well are modular based. So you can pick the lessons that are most relevant to you and your students at the time. Or you can use all the lessons. You can use them in any order.

Alyssa
And everything in your educator dashboard is there for you to feel empowered to provide this to your students to work through independently. So students will have an interactive experience where they’re going on and learning with characters of how to apply financial skills. The feedback that we receive from our high school students is always that I want to see the situations, I want to see other people and how they navigate this. We all watch Tiktok, we all watch reels, we watch to see what people are doing. So we bring that to our courses as well.

Alyssa
In this flagship course, you’re going to go through the basics of banking, employment and taxes.

Lauren
Oh, my gosh, we all need to know that. Yes, and they have jobs right now in high school. So like, it is relevant right now. It’s not just like far off thing.

Alyssa
No, I mean, I can’t remember how many times I called my mom. And I’m like, do I want to put a one or two on here?

Lauren
Right.

Alyssa
Do I want? Like, I don’t know which one to put on my forms. But there’s actually within the lesson, TurboTax has a simulation where you go through what it’s like filling out your taxes. And I love this one to bring home. I’ve had many schools have a tax night where it’s almost like a FAFSA night.

Lauren
Yeah, like a service to the families.

Alyssa
Exactly. We all log in, and we can go you know, parents can access this as well. We all go in and fill out our taxes using this tax simulation, because each lesson is only about 25 to 30 minutes long start to finish. So it’s quick, it’s easy. It saves progress, so you can work on it in chunks of time. But you can even go through different budgeting, consumer skills, managing credit and debit. So we’re not saying a prayer when we swipe your card.

Lauren
Exactly.

Alyssa
And then for counselors, what I absolutely love is there’s a whole module just on financing higher education, and completing your FAFSA. So you can have students during that fall time actually go through this module and fill out a FAFSA so that they can take it home to their parents, or this could be a precursor to your FAFSA nights.

Lauren
Yeah, I imagine. I know, a lot of counselors are already doing a FAFSA night, FAFSA workshop, parent workshop, you know, lessons in the classroom, where they’re helping students go through, but there’s only one of you, or maybe a small team of counselors. If you could even have something out there for the go getters. You know, the students who are going to log in and see that this is valuable, and they want to do it, the or you’re going to help some students. I mean, whether it’s like a passive, hey, here’s your login. I know that’s not what it’s intended for. But like you’re gonna get some go getters who are like, wow, this is valuable.

Alyssa
Yeah, for sure. And that’s the beauty of it, like the students can do it at home if they want. If this is an advisory period that you have the students work on it as they need be. Or if it’s something that you put up on Clever, Google Classroom for them to easily link to. You can have them do that.

Alyssa
And then as an educator, as the counselor, you can go through and track all of your students progress. So you can see what they’re working on. You can see if maybe on the pre and post assessments, has there been growth? Is this impactful? Are they actually learning something? And you can get feedback too on maybe where there’s hiccups? What do I need to cover with them that, you know, across the board? Is this confusing? Alright, let’s hone in on this one part of the FAFSA so that we understand it more clearly.

Lauren
Well, and all of the listeners are data driven counselors who are looking for ways to collect data to be able to share it to say, hey, what what I was doing, was that effective or not? Or where do my students need more help? So yes, that sounds perfect.

Alyssa
Yes, data, we love some data around here. It’s all real time data. It’s all exportable. Really tells the story. And then again, I like to put in a plug for this, this is completely optional. But at the end of the year, your implementation specialist is able to give you what’s called an impact report.

Alyssa
So it will share with you of the entire student population that used either a particular course or many courses, their knowledge going into the course. And then after the course what have their knowledge gains been. And there’s also optional attitudinal surveys. So before I completed this course, this is what I believed about the scholarship application or the debit process. And then after taking the course this is how I feel more confident or this is what I need to learn still.

Lauren
Well and that’s the counselors talk about outcome data, perception data, that is the perception data, however, their attitudes or beliefs or knowledge change around a certain topic. So again, you’re speaking the same language here that those attitudes are definitely going to change when they have some more practice and knowledge and confidence around something like financial literacy.

Alyssa
100% Yes, yes. You want to know your impact. That’s our question that we always ask ourselves that every day, especially on those crazy days really? Did I help anybody today?

Lauren
Exactly

Alyssa
Did I do anything today? And this is just, you know, come further confirmation that it is impactful and it helps you silo in on what your students needs are.

Lauren
So some places that you already kind of mentioned maybe a workshop, a parent night, I’m thinking partnering with a CTE teacher, I just talked about that in a previous episode 64 of working with your CTE teacher, maybe working with your, like you said, civics or gov and econ teachers. Are there other places in the school where you would recommend maybe starting or you’ve seen best practices of a counselor partnering with someone else to make it happen in the school?

Alyssa
Yeah, I’ve seen more often than not, is usually in the freshman classes, they do start some of the basics. So if you have maybe like a freshman forum, or you’ve got a one group or set of time, where you’re really thinking about, okay, how am I making sure that the freshmen know what opportunities and what classes to register for, so that may be a great spot for it.

Alyssa
Another thing that I have found at maybe your smaller high schools, or larger high schools that you’ve got to really set schedule in there is they will either do Money Mondays or Financial Fridays.

Lauren
Oh that’s fun.

Alyssa
It’s a time in advisory class that you just complete at least one lesson of. There’s multiple financial wellness courses that you can complete. They will complete a lesson, maybe one Monday of a month, and then that Friday, we’re going to talk about it and put it into action.

Alyssa
So for example, the ninth grade classes, every first Monday of the month, you’re going to do a lesson of EverFi Financial Literacy. And then once I get up into my seniors, you know, you have options such as sustaining sustainable investing, or maybe crypto foundations, you know, diving deeper into these topics. And then it’s something that the culture of the whole school is talking about financial wellness,

Lauren
That’s really cool. And then it works its way into cross curricular, things like then they’re incorporating it into English class, like maybe somewhere where you didn’t expect to even see them continuing the conversation about financial literacy. It’s working its way into the school’s DNA.

Alyssa
Right, exactly. I love that working into the DNA. Yeah. And just, it came to mind because I was looking at one of the courses one of my favorite ones. And I still hope this like happens at every local high school next to me, so I can come visit. But we have a course that is focused on entrepreneurship. So thinking about what that looks like from start to finish. And in the course, the students actually create their own food truck.

Lauren
Oh, cool.

Alyssa
One school actually went above and beyond and they had their 11th grade students complete this course, because it’s part of the mandates for the state. It’s part of their career portfolios. And so they wanted to make sure that financial wellness was integrated into careers but wasn’t sure exactly how to do that. And so starting your own business was the perfect way to do it.

Alyssa
So the students took the course the course is about an hour and a half long. They broke it up over a couple of days. And then they reached out to some local chefs to come into the school. And in their family and consumer science classes, they made different dishes. And then they worked with our CTE department to create different signage. They reached out to local engineers and created within their math courses, they actually set up like different ways to create these food trucks and designs. Art teacher was involved in this whole process.

Alyssa
They made it just this entire, like you said cross curricular activity, that then they opened up into the gym, their own food truck business. And so they had the community members, families come and actually buy and try the food. And so they were understanding how to exchange money.

Lauren
This is incredible.

Alyssa
I mean, it was amazing. I know, this is like one of those things where it’s like, holy moly, that’s a project. You could scale it back right and make it your own. But it was just the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen to think about not making financial education boring. Rght, and connecting it in so many different ways that it is part of like you said the DNA.

Lauren
Yeah. And even though maybe to some people that sounds like oh, wow, that is a big event, large scale thinking. But I think it’s important that you share that to say, hey, this is something that’s possible. If that excites you about putting together something that big at your school, you can start small.

Lauren
It starts with signing up for an account and you poking around as a counselor and seeing, hey, could this work for our school? Because it sounds like there are a variety of ways that they could take some first steps and just get it going.

Alyssa
Exactly. The sky’s the limit. And I think that’s the another important part of the implementation specialists is, we’re here to help you make the greatest impact. So whether that’s the greatest impact can also be just making sure this education comes to your classroom, or it could be connecting you with community members and giving the students the real world chance to get their hands on to opportunities. You know, we’re here for you in any way possible.

Lauren
So cool. Well, Alyssa, is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you wanted to add? Before I have you share kind of next steps or where counselors can connect with you? Did I miss anything?

Alyssa
I think no, I think these are all fantastic. Only thing I will add is just our resources continue to be completely free. And there’s always something new being added. So I would say always plug in and see. But there are also opportunities outside of our courses for professional development for you as an educator to learn how to implement the resources, and then just empower yourselves, and financial education.

Alyssa
So make sure that you’re looking for those and on our email list to receive those as well. And April is Financial Literacy Month. It’s our big celebration that we love to take some time and just, you know, kudos to everybody implementing it and making sure that we’re always learning something new together. And there’s always an opportunity to start something fresh and your financial world.

Lauren
Yeah, and it’s never too late. Whether you’re the counselor who wants to start implementing. It’s not too late to start doing that. Whether you are in ninth grade, 12th grade, or beyond like there’s something for everyone to learn. Like even as an adult, I’m still learning and growing in this area. So I hope that this podcast empowers educators, counselors to take those first steps into, like helping empower their students.

Alyssa
Yeah, I hope so too. Yeah.

Lauren
Okay, well, where can listeners find you to connect with you after this episode?

Alyssa
Yeah, definitely. So I hope you’re perusing on all of our socials and on our website already. But you can easily go to ever fi.com/counselor. And you can set up your free account there. Where here you can access all of our courses. But when you sign up, you will be given the courses that best align with your grade levels, and the topics that you’re looking for. Within your dashboard, you’ll have access to again, all of those courses, but also curriculum guides, lesson plans. There’s even Canva templates, paradex to start out with. You can make Kahoots from here. There’s all kinds of goodies to explore.

Lauren
Wow, I don’t think that you’ll have forgotten anything. And there’s like every next thing that you’re telling me, I’m like, Oh, that would be useful. The Canva templates, like cool.

Alyssa
Good, good. We’re so happy. Yes. And it’s a lot of this is from counselor feedback. So keep it coming. We want to make sure that we have everything that you may need.

Lauren
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, Alyssa. I know that listeners are going to find a lot of value in hearing about financial literacy for their students. Thanks for being here.

Alyssa
Awesome. Thank you so much for making the space. It was great talking to you.

Lauren
Thank you all for listening to this week’s episode. I hope it was thought provoking, inspiring, and energizing for you as we move into Financial Literacy Month. Like Alyssa said, if you want to connect with her, her information is in the show notes. But I want to make sure you heard www.everfi.com/counselor. That’s how you sign up for your free counselor account. And I hope you do that today.

Lauren
Go log in, go poke around what that counselor dashboard can look like. And imagine implementing this in your school. Remember, you do not have to do it alone. Make this a community and a school wide effort to get your students financially literate as they move throughout their next phase of life. I’ll see you next week.

Lauren
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of High School Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcast so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique. That’s C-L-I-Q-U-E. I’ll see you next week.