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 one student each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday right 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 Thursday go to:

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Student: Hannah McArdle

Teacher: Carin Zinter

School: Gateway to College at Holyoke Community College, Holyoke (MA)

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“I’m very grateful and happy to have been given the opportunity to take this personal finance class and better educate myself about finances and money management. Not only did I learn a large amount of information that I had not previously known, I also created relationships with my peers and my professor. I enjoyed taking this class so much and appreciate the way Carin taught and delivered the curriculum. They made it easy to learn, fun and interactive. I learned valuable information that I will carry with me through the rest of my life. As a result of completing the personal finance class, I am able to manage my money better and understand my finances. I now know how credit works and plan to use my knowledge about credit and other topics like loans to help me in the future. I want to thank Carin Zinter and my advisors for making this opportunity possible.”

-Hannah McArdle

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!