Northway Bank expands funding of Dave Ramsey program to state high schools

BERLIN — A personal finance curriculum developed by Dave Ramsey is once again being offered free of charge to high schools throughout New Hampshire as part of Northway Bank’s community outreach. This year’s program includes 35 high schools, double the number of schools that received the curriculum last year.

The curriculum, Foundations in Personal Finance, is targeted at teens and helps satisfy state requirements that high school students be exposed to the basics of financial literacy.

"We welcome Northway’s continued support of education and encourage high schools to take advantage of the bank’s generosity in making this curriculum available," says Virginia Barry, New Hampshire’s commissioner of education. "If we can help students develop good financial habits in their formative years, it will benefit them the rest of their lives."

After a successful year last year, Northway Bank increased the number of schools for which it would underwrite the cost of the program and the response from participating schools has been tremendous. Jon Judge, an economics teacher at Kennett High School in North Conway said, "We began utilizing the Foundations in Personal Finance course last year as part of our economics curriculum. The results have been quite encouraging. Scores on our students’ exit examinations have increased 22% in the category of financial literacy."

A best-selling author and national radio personality, personal finance guru Dave Ramsey has become wildly popular espousing a sensible approach to money management. The Foundations in Personal Finance curriculum adapts Ramsey’s principles to high school students. It consists of video lessons, student workbooks, and teacher guides covering the ABC’s of personal finance, including budgeting, investing, credit, insurance – even career planning.

"The more grounded our young people are in the principles of personal finance, the smarter they’ll be with their money," says Bill Woodward, president and CEO of Northway Bank. "As a local community bank, our responsibility is to help build strong, healthy communities. Promoting widespread financial education is central to making that happen."

High schools interested in learning more about the Foundations in Personal Finance curriculum should contact Rich Sidor of Northway Bank at 800-442-6666 ext. 4300.