Inside the Classroom

Inside the Classroom

Ellicottville teacher advocates for Personal Finance course as a requirement

Cathie Nason has made teaching students personal finance at Ellicottville Central School her mission. The Business and Computer Science teacher has been with the school for five years now, and has taught the personal finance course for as long. 

Nason was recently awarded a grant by Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) for $10,000. This great achievement comes just after Nason presented to the Board of Education to have Personal Finance be a class that all students are required to take before graduating, which was unanimously approved.

Certainly most people would agree that teaching students personal finance is an incredibly helpful life skill. In Nason’s class, the group covers topics ranging from credit cards to mortgages, apartment buildings to choosing a college, and many other facets of finances.

“It’s such an important skill,” Nason emphasized.

Perhaps the best part of her class, though, is its flexibility.

“It changes a lot, which is what I like about the course because I don't teach the same exact thing every single year,” Nason said. “Like this year, we’ve talked more about how this pandemic is affecting a lot of people's personal finances. It's a fun class, and it's something that I think students really get something out of, that they can use for the rest of their lives.”

She went on to explain other ways in which the college credit-optional class can shift. If her group of students is already money conscious for example, she does not have to spend as much time in that section as with other groups.

To help teach the class, Nason has employed the help of NGPF’s computer software. She explained that the program “helps students get more involved” with the material they are learning.

“They have a lot of interactive games,” Nason said. “It makes the students really think. And it’s something different than just me talking.”

Before this year, Nason also brought in many guest speakers to help supplement the learning. In fact, the intention of the grant was to help fund speakers and field trips to add an extra dimension for the students.

“I hope to take [the students] on cool field trips,” Nason said. “Go and visit different places and talk to different people ... maybe talk to some financial advisors.”

Nason also mentioned mimicking the style of day trips to cities that other schools in the state take. While those schools usually have a shopping or fancy dinner focus, Nason’s group would take the opportunity to learn different aspects of finance while there, such as see the difference in the cost of living from, say, Buffalo to Ellicottville.

“A lot of the students say, ‘Oh, I'm just gonna go move to North Carolina [after graduating],’” Nason explained. “And they don't understand that in different parts of the country, the costs are totally different.”

For the time being, Nason is going to hold on to the grant in hopes of using it in the brighter future ahead.

Ellicottville is the first public school in the state of New York to receive this grant, and only the second school overall. 

Thanks to the dedication of Nason, the current freshman class of 2023 will be the first to have Personal Finance as a requirement. Congratulations to her and the school for the impressive work done to help Ellicottville’s students.