One of the largest gaps in U.S. K-12 curriculums is the prevalence of personal finance education. Financial literacy is not a required subject in the majority of the United States, and young adults consistently report they do not feel they are prepared to deal with financial decisions.

As an ambassador at Take Charge Cats, I conducted personal finance workshops on topics ranging from creating a flexible budget, managing credit, to preventing identity theft. Take Charge Cats’ goal is to promote financial literacy and all services are available to local organizations free of cost.

Through my experiences at Take Charge, I learned how to adjust delivery of a core curriculum to target groups of students with different priorities. As VP of Technology & Outreach, I gained the skill of efficient marketing.

How does a prospective college student choose their major? The journey is unique for everyone. NSLC is a summer pre-collegiate program that provides an extensive introduction to a major and teaches essential leadership skills.

I lead sessions for the engineering and biotechnology programs. Each role I held was comprehensive of the student experience - I did everything from teaching coursework and leading discussions, to managing logistics, to being a residential advisor. As I advanced, I held the role of a head team advisor, where in addition to leading a group of students, I was the manager for the program’s team advisors.

At NSLC, I learned to be scrappy and to manage unexpected situations. Furthermore, I gained a realm of skills related to leadership, team building, communication, and logistics.

YouthStartup is a summer camp for K-12 students. I consulted with the organization to create course curriculums for on subjects such as: JavaScript, Python, Game Development.

I meticulously created integrative programs such that they could be modified for different age groups and levels, and be taught by instructors with varying levels of experiences. I prioritized supplementary hands on learning, and did so leveraging established resources that help teach kids how to code.

I believe that incorporating computational thinking in existing curriculums for any subject is extremely beneficial. Behind coding are core concepts (including decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, algorithm building) that inspire unique perspectives on everyday problems.