Each year, NGPF Fellows have the option to award a Personal Finance Student of the Year Award' to a student who has demonstrated outstanding contributions in their personal finance class during the school year. We'll showcase new winners on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday here on the blog throughout the coming summer weeks. 

Students are selected based on the following criteria:

• Student has taken a personal finance class in the 2019-2020 school year that was taught by the NGPF Fellow who nominated them
• Student demonstrated outstanding performance in the class based on participation/academic excellence/passion for the subject matter

Congratulations this Wednesday go to:

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Student: Yaneisha Lathon

Teacher: James Redelsheimer

School: Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (Plymouth, MN)

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“Learning about personal finance helped me open my eyes to the reality of life once I'm not under the financial care of my parents. Before taking this class I didn't have a financial plan for college, believing that my family was going to pay it all but my assumption was abruptly proven wrong after receiving my financial aid packages. Towards the end of completing my Economics class, I realized that I desperately needed a more in-depth plan that would financially sustain me throughout college to come out with minimal debt as possible.

My mother always told me that living comfortably wasn't cheap and that I needed at least a bachelor's degree to live the lifestyle I was accustomed to. Her advice didn't hit me until completed a budgeting project where I was given minimum to survive off of based on real-world prices. That project not only stressed me out but motivated me to create a detailed financial plan of my own that consisted of a budget, savings plan, and creating a Roth IRA.

Besides the actual curriculum that was taught, this class affected me in a way where I’m less likely to spend money on things I don't need and more willing to invest it to make more money. After learning about the stock market and many other different ways to effectively save and receive money I’m going to start investing myself and teach my family. After all, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

-Yaneisha Lathon

About the Author

Yanely Espinal

Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 2007 before going on to receive her bachelor's degree at Brown University in 2011. As a Teach For America corps member, Yanely taught third and fourth grade in Canarsie, Brooklyn. She received her master's degree from Relay Graduate School of Education in 2013. She spends her spare time making YouTube videos about personal finance on her channel, MissBeHelpful. Yanely also loves to dance, sew, paint, listen to podcasts, and babysit her 10 nieces and nephews!