Champlain College
IN-25: Innovation B

Champlain College's Center for Financial Literacy (CFL) was designed to promote and develop financial literacy skills in students (K-12), college students, teachers (K-12 and college) and adults, which leads to more sound decisions about spending, credit, debt, investments, and complex financial situations, such as buying a home and saving for retirement. The CFL is nationally acclaimed for its efforts to increase the personal finance sophistication of our citizens and has become the credible, go-to source for national media coverage of financial literacy. Financial Literacy connects to sustainability by working to address several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including No Poverty, Quality Education, Gender Equity, and Decent Work and Economic Growth. The CFL runs the Teacher's Financial Literacy Summer Institute (the "Institute") which is a four year program (2017-2020) sponsored by Next Gen Personal Finance and other anonymous donors. Next Gen Personal Finance is a non-profit organization that connects educators with free resources and equips students with the knowledge and skills to lead financially successful and fulfilling lives. The Institute is built upon the results from the CFL's nationally-recognized teacher training pilot program conducted from 2011-2013 in conjunction with Merchants Bank. The goal of the Institute is to increase the financial literacy and instructional capability of teachers through targeted training on financial literacy topics including saving and investing, credit reports and scores, credit and debt, managing risk, income and careers. Teachers who complete the training will have the confidence, skills, and curriculum tools to successfully train their students in financial literacy topics. Number of teachers trained: 167 as of December 2018 with a goal of approximately 250 by December 2020. Number of students reached: Educators who have taken the institute have indicated that they bring personal finance instruction to an average of 75 students each academic year. Assuming that 8% of our trained educators leave the profession each year (consistent with national averages), the CFL estimates that from academic year 2012 to 2019 educators trained by the CFL have brought personal finance instruction to 45,000 middle and high school students. The CFL projects that educators trained by the Center will reach 62,000 middle and high school students when the Institute celebrates its 10th anniversary of putting trained educators into middle and high school classrooms (from academic years 2012 to 2021).