On the money: Teachers honored for students’ financial literacy

Business teachers from Northeast and Southwest high schools recently earned national recognition for their excellence in teaching financial literacy.

Deb Wolken of Northeast and Josh Hinrichs of Southwest received Gold Star Teacher Awards from the non-profit organization Working in Support of Education (w!se), which produces a financial literacy certification exam administered by teachers across the country. Students in their College Personal Finance courses took the exam.

w!se honors teachers whose students achieved at least a 93 percent pass rate. Wolken and Hinrichs were among roughly 500 teachers nationwide to earn the award.

Hinrichs worked in banking prior to becoming a teacher 10 years ago. He saw firsthand the consequences of poor financial decision-making.

“Part of the reason I went into teaching was to help students realize the importance of being financially aware,” he said. “Habits start at a young age, so if we can train students how to be financially aware now - as they are just getting their feet wet in the financial world with their first part-time jobs and first cars - then we have the possibility of setting them up for a lifetime of success.”

Wolken has taught business courses for 30 years, including the last 16 with LPS. She said it’s more important than ever that young people learn about personal finance, which is included in numerous LPS courses.

“Consumers face many more decisions about their money now than in the past,” Wolken said. “The Great Recession in 2008 demonstrated that consumers, in general, were and are not very good with all of the daily financial decisions we make - many of these decisions can impact us for life.”


Published: October 13, 2017, Updated: October 18, 2017