The Foundation started a new initiative in 2022 with a desire to see a personal finance course in the Beaufort County schools.
And that’s exactly what happened…thanks to some hard working Foundation Board members and the generous support of the Wexford Charitable Fund along with Danielle and John Troutman, Financial Advisors with Merrill Lynch, and Carol and Harley Ruff, students in all 6 Beaufort County high schools were given the opportunity to learn to manage money using Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance Course this school year.
“Adding a course to a school district’s curriculum is no easy task!” says Lisa Carroll, Foundation Board Chair. “But our committed board members were determined and persistent about offering personal finance courses to the students of the Beaufort County School District. They worked hard for over a year to make this program available.”
The initiative was spurred on by the passion of Foundation Board Members, Carol Ruff and Danielle Troutman. In addition, Foundation Board Member, Carole Ingram, really believed in this program and is currently overseeing the program in progress. Jackie Rosswurm, another Foundation Board Member, assisted with valuable communications to district leadership to help see the initiative through to fruition. The entire process took lots of meetings both in person and virtually, phone calls and emails – but they didn’t give up!
Everyone involved recognized that promoting the importance of financial literacy education in our high schools would help to instill a sound framework for making sensible financial decisions for a lifetime.
For the 2023-24 school year, over 300 students were enrolled in Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance course during the first 2 semesters at all the high schools (grades 9-12) in Beaufort County.
The goal for the course was to help prepare these high school students for lifelong financial freedom. Topics included: Credit & Debt, Budgeting Basics, Consumer Awareness and Save Money. As a part of Ramsey’s Five Foundations, the course instills in the students the idea that “If you will live like no one else NOW, later you can live and GIVE like no one else.”
The students were so excited about what they were learning that teachers reported many were sharing the information with their parents who were then asking questions about how THEY could implement these principals in their lives.
Another huge bonus to Ramsey’s course….it is also available in Spanish – benefiting Beaufort County’s ESOL students who were enrolled in the course. This broadened the impact among our district’s diverse population.
The district expressed its appreciation to the Foundation for funding this "bridge" year which allowed Ramsey to extend across the district and provide all teachers in Beaufort County the opportunity to use it.
The Foundation Board is so appreciative of the support of the Wexford Charitable Fund along with Danielle and John Troutman, Financial Advisors with Merrill Lynch, and Carol and Harley Ruff, that helped make this possible. And it truly is exciting to see the tremendous impact that this course has had on the high school students of Beaufort County! These invaluable financial lessons will set these students up for financial success in life ultimately benefiting themselves, their families and their communities.
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