"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Sequoyah Students Get Financial Instruction

"A group of Sequoyah Schools students eagerly watches a power point simulation of a day in
the stock market."

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma - A team of college students from Drury University spent a week in the sooner state teaching students at Sequoyah Schools how to better manage their money. Members of the Drury University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, taught the financial literacy classes as a community outreach project for their school.

“We’re really excited to be in Tahlequah this week,” said Sarah Stremme, project leader for the team. “Our team has a lot of experience in teaching this topic, and we’re honored to be bringing financial literacy concepts to students in the Cherokee Nation.”

The team’s goal is to educate the students according to state legislation, passed in 2007, that requires all Oklahoma schools to provide education in basic financial literacy concepts. The team has lesson plans that cover all of the requirements of the mandate, which include managing credit card debt, pay-day loans, mortgages, payroll and taxation. The team also incorporated a stock-market simulation to allow students to make decisions based on the daily ups and downs of the stock market.

“I just learned how to handle money better and what I should do if I was in debt or had a really big crisis,” said Roxanne Harmon, Sequoyah Schools’ junior.

Students at Sequoyah Schools also have the option to take a Math of Finance class to help prepare them for some of the financial math problems that they may face later in life.

Sequoyah Schools, a boarding school for Native American students, originated in 1871 as an orphan asylum to care for children who were orphaned by the Civil War. Now known as Sequoyah Schools, it is named for Sequoyah, the scholar who developed the Cherokee syllabary. The school is regionally and state accredited for grades 7-12 and has become the school of choice for more than 400 Native American students every year. Sequoyah Schools is located five miles southwest of Tahlequah, Okla. For more information call 918-453-5400 or visit the Sequoyah Schools’ web site.