Six schools across Delaware are launching a financial education program geared toward under-served students.
The curriculum was developed by a New York-based nonprofit group called NAF, which partners with schools across the country to equip teachers to educate low-income students in specialty areas.
The state Department of Education worked with NAF to tailor the curriculum specifically to Delaware, said Lisa Wilson, an education associate in the department who worked on the project.
It will be a three-year program that culminates with a paid internship in the summer between students’ junior and senior years, she said.
NAF, which began in 1982, works with companies like J.P. Morgan and KPMG to offer students an opportunity to work in the field.
In addition to its finance program, NAF also offers programs in engineering, hospitality and tourism, information technology, and health sciences. Finance is its most popular program.
Appoquinimink, Dover, Indian River, Middletown, Sussex Central and Woodbridge high schools are starting the program this year, according to Courtney Savoia, spokeswoman for NAF. The Howard High School of Technology has been offering a finance program through NAF since 2000, she said.
The program costs each school $10,000 to start and $2,000 each year to maintain membership, but each of the six schools starting the program this year won federally funded grants of $16,000, Wilson said.
She is expecting about 120 students to participate this year and, at the end of the program, they’ll have credits that they can use at Delaware Technical Community College.