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Writer's pictureKayan Shah

Financial Literacy Program for Disadvantaged Middle School Students - Kayan Eagle Scout Proj

My Eagle Scout Project consisted of two identical financial literacy classes for disadvantaged middle schoolers at the local library. The impact of the project is that now 45+ students are educated in one of the most vital topics in modern society. I completed my project in November 2022 and started working on it in April 2022.


Hours total worked

Volunteers

Amount raised- $

Program Day Length

265

13

$620

6 hrs per day


Video of my Program Day:



The reason I chose this as my Eagle Scout project is because of the large impact I would have on the students who would attend my class. Financial literacy rates are extremely low in the USA so, considering that finance is my interest and that it is a necessary thing, I decided to teach students about it. The students learned about financial literacy got goodie bags, played financial literacy games (Financial Jeopardy, Payday, etc), and had lunch. The impact of the project is that now 50+ students are educated in one of the most vital topics in modern society. Hopefully, now these students will learn to be smarter with their money and maybe I inspired a financial literacy interest in them. They could possibly teach their friends and then the inspiration and knowledge spread even more.


Pictures from the entire process of the project from Planning Meetings to Program Day(s):


Most rewarding part of being a leader?

Being a leader, including operating, planning, executing, and managing a program. It was a very rewarding experience considering that all of the ideas and work were of my own creation and that the program was very large and to a big extent. That was the best part because I had never planned something like this before and it was all on my own accord. The best part of being a leader was managing and teaching the scouts who helped me run the program. I also enjoyed teaching and furthering my learning by creating the financial literacy curriculum. I liked the process of all your hard work being put into something impactful and important, possibly changing the future of people's lives.


In what ways did you demonstrate leadership?

My project and program days left a lot of ability for me and relied on me to demonstrate leadership. The first way I showed leadership was by getting in

contact with and coordinate with the host library (Bascom Branch, SJPL). I was also able to show leadership when I needed others to help me run my project, I got some scouts from my troop and an out-of-school friend to help me execute my project. I ran two training days where I basically led the scouts through my project ideas and how the program would go. I taught them financial literacy so they could be confident enough and knowledgeable to help me run the program I also had them help me to create the goodie bags for the students, instructed and helped them create a flier to advertise my program, create a Jeopardy game to use at the program and taught them the board game they would be leading students through at the program. After the training then came the program day where we had to work through some problems relating to classroom set-up. During the class I would have the scouts help with many things; help me teach the curriculum, when the class was in small groups a scout would manage each one and they managed other small things/issues that spontaneously arose during the program(s). Mainly I lead them to help me to run a successful program.


What did you learn about leadership, or how were your leadership skills further developed?

This event really helped me learn about leadership and developed many skills during the six months I spent planning and executing my program. I learned that leadership takes patience; trial and error; planning; grit, and time to make things happen. Some of the skills that further developed were planning, teaching, guiding students, creativity, relationship building, adaptability, decision-making, conflict management, critical thinking, and teamwork. All of these skills definitely became significantly stronger because of this project. I am especially happy to have improved upon those skills because I know they are integral for a good career and overall useful leadership skills to have learned early.


Supporting docs from my project including; curriculum, emails, spreadsheets, teaching materials, and planning docs:


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