Teacher Spotlight

Michigan Jump Start is excited to share the money stories of the teachers from around the State of Michigan.   Below you will learn more about how each of these teachers got into teaching financial education in the classroom, the passion they have for the topic, how it has helped their students, and so much more.  If you would like to learn more or would like us to share your story, please feel free to reach out to us by emailing info.mijumpstart@gmail.com

Amanda Volz

Amanda Money Story – Amanda is a personal finance teacher at St. Clair High School in St. Clair, Michigan. She has been teaching for 18 years and her course, Financial Management, has grown tremendously over that time. What started as a one-section, one-semester course called “Consumer Education” has grown to five-sections of a full-year course. Amanda is passionate about giving students real-world experiences and information in the classroom. She believes very much in hands-on learning and uses a lot of simulation-based and game-based experiences such as Budget Challenge and NGPF’s Activities and Arcade in her classroom. Amanda believes that every student should graduate high school with a financial education.

 

 

Amy Broekhuizen

Amy Money Story – Amy has been a teacher at East Kentwood High School for 19 years, with 10 of them teaching Personal Finance. We offer Personal Finance as a 1-semester stand alone course that counts as an option for 4th year math credit for graduation requirement. 

East Kentwood as a district is very unique in that our population of over 9,000 students offers the most diversified in the state – approximately 65 countries and over 70 languages represented. We are privileged to hear many stories of the journeys our students take to make them who they are and how we can get them to where they want to go.

The reason I love to teach Personal Finance is because of how “real” it is – there are so few classes that students take throughout their secondary educational career where they get to apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom at that exact moment in their lives. I love that I get to enhance some of the techniques that they already use in order to stay out of debt (save,save,save) and still teach them new techniques that will help them even further in life. I am very transparent with my students when it comes to my teaching style – they need to know that I practice what I teach. For example, when talking about a savings technique of setting up different savings accounts to reach financial goals, I show them my online banking so they can see how I do this. You cannot get any more real than that. I want my students to know that talking about money is not a bad thing – it’s personal but needs to be approachable. Financial literacy is something that is never going to go away. Therefore, if we can hand our students the tools to put into their toolbox, then we are preparing them for a positive life regardless of what financial obstacles come their way.