The Detrimental Gap in the American Education System: Money is Power by Mary

The Detrimental Gap in the American Education System: Money is Power by Mary - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

In my 12 years of education, I have never taken a financial literacy course. I was expected to take calculus, biology and history, but there was no class teaching necessary money skills. I suppose the mitochondria is important, but what about budgeting? Investing in the stock market? Opening a bank account? How are high schoolers expected to matriculate into the "real world" after graduation with no basic understanding of finances? In the next 10 years, I hope the American education system will make a finance 101 course mandatory for all high school seniors, so that they can learn financial skills to set them up for success.

I recognize I currently have no power to implement this widespread curriculum change, but I am very passionate about encouraging Gen Z's financial literacy. For the past 8 months, I have been running a Tiktok account (@moneywithmary) where I post educational and entertaining videos about important financial literacy topics, such as investing, retirement and budgeting. Since October 2021, I have posted 1-2 Tiktok videos every single day, spanning financial topics from Roth IRAs to Bitcoin. After hundreds of hours of filming, scripting and analysis, @moneywithmary has grown to 36k followers, 1.6 million total likes and 100+ million total views. I have mentored over 20 teenagers 1:1 on the basics of stocks/crypto. I was a featured guest speaker on a podcast and at a virtual business summit. I even took a gap year and dedicated all my time to growing my educational platform.

I want to make a positive impact on the world, and I want my work to be meaningful. Since schools do not provide a financial curriculum, it can be challenging for students to find free accessible resources to start their financial literacy journey. Therefore I am especially passionate about my public educational Tiktok platform, because I recognize young adults often do not have the funds to buy expensive investing courses or hire a financial advisor, so I am providing a beneficial costless alternative.

Calculus, biology and history are important subjects. But I would argue that neither mathematical nor scientific knowledge trumps the importance of financial literacy. Money is power in today's world. In the next 10 years, we need the American education system to implement a mandatory finance literacy course for high school seniors so that every young adult can recognize and exercise her power.