Helping Students Gain Financial Literacy Skills for Career and Beyond

Helping Students Gain Financial Literacy Skills for Career and Beyond A Story of Teacher & Student Success

Featured Educator Yoelin Cabrera-Fernandez Academy of Finance & Banking Teacher Southwest Miami High School Miami, Florida

Exposing Students to the Real World In the heart of Miami, Florida sits Southwest Miami Senior High School where high school teacher, Ms. Yoelin Cabrera-Fernandez, teaches personal finance and accounting. The school is located in the middle of the city and surrounded by residences, which Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez refers to as “a hidden gem”. Their school is predominantly Hispanic with many of the students being English Language Learners. Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez has been teaching for 20 years and has been at Southwest Miami Senior High School for the past eight years.

She originally got a degree in elementary education and after teaching for a while, was able to work with different levels of students. While doing this, she realized how much she enjoyed working with students at the high school level. She said nothing makes her happier than seeing her students excel, succeed, and reach their goals. She stays in contact with many of the students she taught, mostly through LinkedIn. Some of them have gone on to pursue majors and careers in accounting, finance, and computer science, and many claim they fondly remember the Knowledge Matters simulations that they used in her class.

As a teacher, Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez explains that she cares more

on. Sometimes she ends the class with an exit quiz so that she

about simply teaching materials to her students, and sincerely

can make sure that they’ve grasped the concept or sometimes

hopes to prepare them for their future endeavors and inspire

she ends with the simulation to allow them to test and apply the

them to reach their full potential. Her biggest challenge, though, is

concepts.

helping them realize how capable or how intelligent they are.

“ They can have big hopes and dreams…

because we’ve got some really smart, talented kids in our program. I’m really, really blessed with that.

”

Working Together Through Challenges One aspect she finds her students truly enjoy is how challenging the simulations are. Financial literacy is not an easy curriculum, but into practice the different business structures she teaches them in her class. After the lesson, she has the students work through the Virtual Business Entrepreneurship simulation so they can test what

To accomplish this, Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez tries to expose her

for them to see a business in action compared to just hearing her

students to as many opportunities as she can. She works on

teach the lesson. Do they need to raise or decrease income or

college and career readiness skills to help prepare them for

change their inventory to see a change in profit?

what they like to call “life after Southwest.” She finds they are very protected in their high school and wants to make sure her

Her students also start networking when they see their businesses

students are ready for whatever path they choose in life, whether

not working. Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez allows her students to

that be post-secondary education, the armed forces, or the

work in pairs when the simulations get difficult. She stresses to

workforce. Her goal is to facilitate career exploration and foster a

the students that they should not be sharing the answers but

collaborative classroom reminiscent of the real world.

giving thought provoking questions to help navigate through the challenges. She compares it to what they will experience after

they can take with them that financial knowledge which we hope prepares them for important financial decisions in life.

”

open their eyes to the world that’s out there. I can’t teach that in my classroom.

And the simulation is the vehicle used for that.

”

her students enjoy piecing it together and having the ability to put

works or what does not work. She explains that it is very different

“ Whatever it is they choose,

“ I think that the trip to ICDC really does

school.

“ Like in real life, when we have a challenge or a struggle, we go to our peers or somebody higher above and we’ll network.

”

Taking Skills to an International Level Another way she brings the real world into her classroom is through the Virtual Business Entrepreneurship simulation, which she uses to inspire her students to participate in the Knowledge Matters Virtual Business Challenge. If their scores are high enough, qualifying students get to go to an annual conference and compete.

To help her reach her goals and expose her students to various

The winners of the challenge are offered a scholarship, which they

career options, Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez incorporates the

compete for through the simulations on a national level at DECA’s

Knowledge Matters Virtual Business simulations into her personal

International Career Development Conference (ICDC).

finance and accounting courses alongside her partner at their school. To keep her students engaged, she tries not to do too

Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez makes sure to encourage students to give

much lecturing. She keeps her instruction short, and then gives

their best effort in the simulation in hopes they will do well in the

them time to practice. Then she comes back and discusses with

competition. She said the competitive experience and preparation

the class how they think things went. At this point she determines

provides one more way to engage and motivate her students in

if they need more time to review or if they are ready to move

her classroom.

Students Finding Success

Helping Students Outside of the Classroom The simulations and the experiences they offer also helped her students in ways she had not expected. During the lockdown due to COVID-19, she leaned on the simulations as a source of stability for her students. Since her students had already become accustomed to working on the simulations, it was a seamless transition for her to assign them and for students to be able to work on them outside of the classroom. To maintain their attention and engagement, she utilized the built-in tools that the

Just last year she took two accounting teams and one

Knowledge Matters simulations offer. For example, she measured

entrepreneurship team to ICDC in Atlanta, GA. One of her

lesson progress, goal attainment, concept mastery, and the time

accounting teams placed third internationally, and the other

students spent staying on task. She also downloaded the Student

two teams made it on stage to be recognized in the top ten. She

Progress Report which provided reading quiz results, math quiz

describes how excited her students were to be there and how

results, and measured whether the students met their goals.

they were also able to do quite a few fun activities in the city of

The data analysis tools make student monitoring simple. Since

Atlanta during their visit. She hopes this year a few more students

students know she will be reviewing the reports, they know they

from different grade levels will qualify and grow the excitement

need to complete assignments and participate in the simulations.

for more students in the future. She says it is hard for them to

During her time spent with her students at ICDC, she realized the

understand the competition until they see it for themselves

impact COVID had on them.

“ You tell them, “Hey, let’s go to ICDC!”,

but they don’t really understand what that means. Hopefully this year I can get students from different grades qualifying so that they can be ambassadors because once they go, they love it and they want to go year after year.

”

“ All of my students were at home for so long because of COVID. One of the young women told me, ‘I’ve talked more on this trip than the whole school year.’ I could see the girl’s maturity and how the simulation opened the door for her to have these experiences. Just seeing that spark light up was phenomenal.

”

Simulations Provide an Opportunity for Career Exploration

Thankful for Career Readiness Resources

In addition to being motivated to compete in the simulation

Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez is grateful to the Miami-Dade Career and

competitions, many students are often led to a career field they

Technical Education department for believing in the Knowledge

wish to pursue through Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez’s class and the

Matters product line and providing it to her students. When she

simulations. For example, from her current graduating class one

started at Southwest, she was introduced to the simulations by a

student wants to be a forensic accountant, one student wants

former colleague who used them in her classes. She quickly saw

to be an actuary, and many students want to go into the fields

the value of using the simulations and implemented them into her

of business and finance. She hopes to have a few accountants in

curriculum.

that group but is grateful they are at least showing strong interest.

Many are picking their major for university in these fields after using the Knowledge Matters simulations in her class. Early in the school year, she guides students through a career discovery and exploration unit where they create resumes, business cards, explore majors, research job outlooks, starting salary, etc. This exercise, accompanied with the simulations, gives her students perspective on different career opportunities.

“I believe that they realize the simulations give them some sort of warm up because they are now learning from the field perspective. It’s a way to expose them to another career instead

“ I really think it helps the students make

the connection between my instruction, or instruction in general, and the actual application of concepts. I hear them appreciating how the curriculum really does help them realize or make those connections with what is being taught.

”

of just listening to me talk about another career. They can see real life examples of what it could be like,” says Ms. CabreraFernandez. She finds that Knowledge Matters is quintessential in fostering an environment where students feel challenged, improve their interpersonal skills, and immerse themselves in real world scenarios that prepare them for the road ahead. She loves to celebrate their accomplishments in class and highlight student success.

Ms. Cabrera-Fernandez was recently recognized by eDynamic Learning as a 2022 Career Compass Award recipient for her incredible work with her CTE students in helping guide passion to purpose. We know she will continue to ignite learning and help her students make real-world connections for years to come!

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