In Order to Make Life Easier by Cassandra

In Order to Make Life Easier by Cassandra - January 2023 Scholarship Essay

Some of the many questions that I ask coming out of high school is “How do I fill out a tax form?” or “How do I manage my finances once I have a steady job?”. During the last four years of high school, I feel like no one has answered those questions. An elective that I think should be a required class is a Business and Personal Finance Class. This class should be required to answer these questions, and to answer many more questions that are needed after graduation.
A Business and Personal Finance Class was offered at my high school, but I had no room in my schedule to take it due to other classes that were required. This class would help me and other high school students to answer the question of how to fill out a tax form. This class could do a step-by-step process as to how to fill one out, and the teacher could offer to fill theirs out as an example for the class. All the students in school, including myself, are going to have to fill out a tax form at some point in our lives. Any class that shows us how to do this, step by step, would help prepare us and other generations for the future.
Another question this class could help answer could be “How do I manage my finances once I have a steady job?”. Since Finance is the name of the class, this class would most definitely be able to help answer that question. Most high school students have jobs all through high school, but most of them do not know how to manage their money, including myself. I do not have bills to pay, and most of the time I do not even have to pay for my gas. When I receive a paycheck, it goes into my checking account and stays in there unless I decide to go get food somewhere, or I buy something that I most of the time do not need. This class could help high school students, like myself, to know what to do with the money. It could teach us how to budget our money once receiving the paycheck. It could teach us how to start a savings account and help us to know how much to put in there to help pay for college and eventually future bills and payments.
A Business and Personal Finance class would also be able to answer questions related to filling out checks, knowing what a checkbook is, and knowing how to balance it. Personally, I know what a check and a checkbook is, but I do not necessarily know how to fill one out. I have been taught in the past, but it was one of those lessons where one to two days was spent on it, and then we moved on. I do not even remember a lesson on how to balance a checkbook, and I do not know how to do that. Checks are not commonly used in today’s time, but my generation and the generations after me still need to know how to do it. Even though checks are not commonly used, learning how to write one and balance a checkbook is a good skill that I think everyone needs to know how to do. This class would be able to have a step-by-step process on how to write a check and how to balance a checkbook.
A Business and Personal Finance class would be able to answer many questions that some high school students, including myself, ask after graduating. This class is a key ingredient in how to handle and live in the business world. This class would allow my generation, and generations after mine, to have a head start into life after graduating high school and college.