Search
Volunteers from the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants, the LSU AgCenter and St. Tammany Parish Public Schools helped Covington High School students navigate challenges at a LYFE Program event on Oct. 18. Photos provided by Christina Zito-Hebert
In the fall of 2024, Louisiana 4-H partnered with the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants (LCPA) and St. Tammany Parish Public Schools to teach the Living Your Financial Experience — or LYFE — Program to 300 agricultural students at Covington High School.
The experiential learning series introduces foundational financial principles, including identifying needs versus wants, setting goals, banking essentials, cyber security practices, insurance options, budgeting, saving strategies and credit decisions.
The research-based program provides opportunities to engage local community members and industry partners in the learning process. During the pilot program in St. Tammany Parish, the LYFE lessons were taught by Covington High School agricultural teachers Bryant Laird and Hunter King, along with guest presenter Ron Gitz, the executive director of LCPA.
“The best part about this is having those community members here to work with our students and to share their expertise,” King said.
After completing the LYFE lessons, students participated in an exercise where they were assigned an occupation and a salary and then challenged to make decisions on investing, housing, transportation, groceries, clothing and leisure activities. Community volunteers served as salespeople for each task.
For many of the students, it was the first time they were asked to make such decisions or learned the price of groceries.
Through a retrospective program evaluation, 64% of participants said they had increased their personal savings since beginning the LYFE Program, and 35% noted that they understood the role that values play in managing money.
“It gives kids a real picture of how money is spent in a household on a monthly basis and how budgeting is so important,” STPPS Superintendent Frank Jabbia said.
The program supports the state requirement that all Louisiana students participate in financial management education to graduate high school.
