LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A group of Coral Academy students is at the helm of a new business program and they’re looking to expand their reach to students throughout the Las Vegas valley.
“We really need financial literacy for our teens,” said Coral Academy of Science tenth-grader, Rachel Martin.
Martin and her business club classmates didn’t wait around for the school, state, or country to develop a program for them. They started one on their own! Using funds from the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership (YNAPP) Program, students created a free five-week essentials program.
The program includes interactive sessions, small group discussions, and speakers including the vice president of JP Morgan.
“We really wanted to make sure that everyone could have the knowledge of just finance in general,” Martin said.
The program covers what’s discussed in the business club at the Sandy Ridge campus: hospitality and tourism, marketing, entrepreneurship, business administration, and most importantly finance.
“We’ve heard a lot of our classmates complain also about like ‘taxes’ they’re worried about taxes now. So, we wanted the opportunity to teach them,” said tenth-grader Mahika Nelloremadhu.
“We kind of wanted to expose high schoolers and middle schoolers also, to business. How are people who are passionate in finance supposed to know they’re passionate in finance, without finance classes?”
“Their goal is to reach as many people as they could,” said advisor Macey Long.
The students first bought the idea to Long after attending the state Career Development Conference. They intended the program to be for low-income students throughout the valley. Each session had about 25 students, many from Coral Academy but a few from surrounding schools. Students say they plan on applying for the YNAPP grant again and will have a larger focus on outreach.
The last week of the program is May 22-26. Sessions will be held on Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Cox Innovation Lab.
