Announcing the winners of the 2016 NGPF Teacher Innovator Awards…. Drumroll please. Wait a minute, first we have some people to thank.

Thank you to all of the teachers who contributed to this contest by sharing your favorite activity. It inspires us to see the creativity and innovation occurring in personal finance classrooms across the country. Our selection process this year was made that much more difficult due to the quantity and quality of the submissions.

In fact, the quality and creativity was so high, that we decided to honor four additional teachers beyond the three that we had originally intended. We hope that you enjoy reviewing their activities (we certainly did) and find one that you can’t wait to use in your classroom.

2016 NGPF Teacher Innovator Award Winners

To recognize personal finance educators during Financial Literacy Month, Next Gen Personal Finance is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual NGPF Teacher Innovator Award winners.

Each of the winners in the Best Activity/Project category will be receiving $1,000 from NGPF and will be featured in an upcoming NGPF Blog post and press release. The winners are:

• Lisa Bender, Personal Finance Educator at Southern Garrett High School in Oakland, Maryland, submitted a project “Prepping for Success: Exploring College and Career” which which takes a student-centered approach to career exploration and offers students choices (using a Tic-Tac-Toe game board) for how they present their findings.

• David Soldner, a Teacher at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Fox Lake, Wisconsin uses celebrities as a hook to engage his students in his “Celebrity Income Tax Return” activity. Who wants to do Jessica Alba’s tax return?

• Danielle Trouve, a Business Teacher at Chelmsford High School in Chelmsford, Massachusetts uses her activity “Egg and Spoon Insurance and Probability” to bring the concept of insurance to life for her students. What an eggcellent idea (sorry I couldn’t resist)!

Each of the winners of the 2016 NGPF Teacher Innovator Award – Honorable Mention will be receiving $250 from NGPF and will be featured in an upcoming NGPF Blog post and press release. The winners are:

• Kerri Herrild, Business Teacher at De Pere High School in De Pere, Wisconsin, engages her students’ parents in her “Personal Finance Goal-Setting and Expense Tracking project.”

• Amanda Volz, Business Teacher at St. Clair High School in St. Clair, Michigan uses the “Shark Tank” format to have her students compete head-to-head in a competition where each is pitching a publicly held company in “Company Competition.”

• Brian Yanizeski, Business Teacher from Fox Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania developed an online “Home Buying Project” that has a few unique aspects, which include having his students participate in an online forum to share their knowledge.

• Nancy Labricciosa, Business Teacher at Plymouth-Whitemarsh Senior High School in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania has developed a comprehensive and holistic “Retirement Investing Project” in which students see the link between their youthful decisions and their standard of living during their golden years.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.