For Dr. Travis Towne, a funny thing happened on his way to a national teachers’ conference on financial literacy: he got a lesson on the value of money.
Towne, who teaches civic literacy, economics and personal finance at Lenoir County Early College High School, was one of 25 teachers nationwide to win an NGPF scholarship to attend the National Jump Educator Conference. $ tart 2022 in Atlanta held November 4-6. .
The scholarship covered conference registration, accommodation and meals. The North Carolina Council on Economic Education, which last year named Towne a Master Teacher, provided airfare for the conference.
“The only thing I had to pay for was the round trip to the airport and meals along the way,” Towne said.
Of course, the value of his weekend was the conference itself and the opportunity to interact with 350 K-12 educators who, like Towne, are passionate about making students smarter about managing the money.
Many educators work in states that, unlike North Carolina, do not require a high school personal finance curriculum. “Many of these teachers pushed for financial literacy in their classrooms,” Towne said.
“The conference itself had wonderful speakers. We touched on very deep aspects of financial literacy,” he said. “One of the most important things I learned were financial matrices of how we think about money, how our personalities handle money. Everyone has a different way.
Towne also got to visit the Atlanta Fed, where he learned something about the history of silver “and how silver really developed in commerce,” he said.
“I look forward to bringing more financial literacy education to my classroom and sharing what I’ve learned with my peers,” Towne said. “I want to thank the Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) and the North Carolina Council on Economic Education for their support in attending this amazing conference.”
Last month, the NGPF named Towne an NGPF Distinguished Educator for completing six 10-hour professional development courses and achieving NGPF certification in each one. He was one of 26 teachers to earn the Distinguished Educator title, held by only 572 teachers nationwide.