CARIBOU, Maine — On Thursday, April 25 Samantha Drost’s personal finance students from Caribou High School visited third-graders at the Caribou Community School as part of the National Teen Teach-In, a nationwide campaign where high school students teach elementary students in their community how to manage money. The Teen Teach-In is a project of the nonprofit Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.
Caribou High School is among the more than 130 high schools from 44 states that volunteered to hold Teen Teach-Ins this spring. Six students from Drost’s consumer economics and ValerieAnn Waldemarson’s Jobs for Maine Graduates financial literacy classes from participated in the event.
Students enthusiastically embraced their roles as mentors, visiting Ms. Ingraham’s third-grade classroom at Caribou Community School to teach essential lessons on budgeting for future careers and grocery shopping within a budget. This cross-generational exchange not only empowered the high schoolers with teaching responsibilities but also instilled vital financial literacy skills in the younger learners, fostering a community of knowledge-sharing and growth.
This is part of a larger trend in which children are anxious to learn about money management. According to an April Intuit survey, 85 percent of high school students are interested in learning more about personal finance in school and 95 percent of high school students currently studying money management find it helpful.
“I’m so proud of my students. They really put their hearts into teaching the elementary school students about money matters,” said Drost. “It was wonderful to see how inspired all of the students were — they had such a terrific time teaching and learning about this important topic.”
