Libby Kurt of Forest Hills Northern High School (Grand Rapids, MI) and Rithvika Thunuguntla of Parkway Central High School (Chesterfield, MO) join us on the NGPF Podcast to talk about their backgrounds, their experience taking a personal finance course, and how playing Payback influenced their college plans in the future. 

Details:

• 0:00~1:12 Introduction
• 1:12~13:03 Libby Kurt of Forest Hills Northern High School (Grand Rapids, MI)
• 1:12~3:29 Libby’s background and life as a lacrosse goalie
• 3:29~6:22 Experience taking a personal finance course
• 6:22~8:21 Playing Payback
• 8:21~9:13 Process of creating the winning entry
• 9:13~11:02 Libby’s poem
• 11:02~13:03 Best strategies to engage students
• 13:03~19:06 Rithvika Thunuguntla of Parkway Central High School (Chesterfield, MO)
• 13:03~14:23 Rithvika’s background and competing in speech and debate
• 14:23~16:13 Experience taking a personal finance course
• 16:13~17:07 Playing Payback
• 17:07~17:56 Process of creating the winning entry
• 17:56~19:06 Best strategies to engage students
• 19:06~19:49 Conclusion

Resources:

• NGPF Announces Winners of 6th Annual PAYBACK Challenge
• Time for Payback
• Two Cents

About the Authors

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

Ren Makino

Ren started interning at NGPF in 2014, and worked part-time through high school and college. With his knowledge growing alongside NGPF, he joined the team to work full-time after graduating from college in 2020. He is also the producer of the NGPF podcast. During his free time, he likes to try out coffees from different roasters across the world.