Eamonn Gordon has been interested in finance ever since he discovered a stock market app on his iPod touch at the age of four.
The fascination started by chance. Gordon tried to watch “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” on his iPod during his family vacation, but instead of clicking on the iTunes app, he ended up clicking on the stock market app.
“After that, I was really fascinated by it because I saw a lot of lines, and a lot of numbers, and red and green colors,” Gordon said.
He said his interest in finance has only grown as he has gotten older.
“In fifth or sixth grade, I started getting more interested in investing in stocks, actually building a portfolio, and reading market news,” Gordon said.
Gordon, currently a senior at Dos Pueblos High School, recently received the Congressional App Challenge Award from Congressman Salud Carbajal.
Mr Gordon won the online learning course Financedu. This course was designed to provide a free, comprehensive and engaging financial course to empower more young people as they start making financial decisions.
“We made it free because we want it to be accessible to everyone,” Gordon said. “As adults, we take on something with great responsibility, so we need training and preparation for it, because it can affect the rest of our lives.”
The Congressional App Challenge has been running since 2015, and participating U.S. lawmakers select a middle school or high school student in their district to submit an app for consideration. This competition was designed to encourage students to learn coding and pursue a career in computer science.
Gordon came up with the idea for Financedu after attending a 2021 science fair where one of the essay questions on his application asked, “If you could take a course at your school, what would it be?” It was when
“We thought if we started creating courses, we could create something that teachers could use,” Gordon said. “So I took it from there.”
Gordon started working on the course content two years ago, the website software a year ago, and began testing it last summer.
“At first I was doing it on my own with the support of my parents,” Gordon told Noozhawk. “They didn't really know what I was doing, but they knew the gist of it and supported me with it. They helped me and guided me.”
Although Gordon developed the course content and software alone, he was able to have a group of volunteers take the course and give them feedback on how it needed to be improved.
Gordon's main goal when he entered the competition was to raise awareness and promote Financedu so more people could take the course.
Gordon found out she had been chosen as the contest winner in late December and was scheduled to attend the awards ceremony in January.
“I felt a great sense of satisfaction that the work I had been working on for so long was paying off,” Gordon said. “I was satisfied with the course and all the work I had done so far, and I was also excited about this kind of new chapter in the project, which will be used by many students and teachers for the general public. ”
Winners of the contest will have the opportunity to participate in an event called House of Code. There, students can present their projects to corporate sponsors, businesses, and nonprofit organizations at the U.S. Capitol.
Gordon said the next steps will focus on improving the platform's functionality and removing bugs to improve the user experience.
“We also want to create a platform for districts and schools to monitor the progress of their lessons, so they can see how students are progressing across schools and classes, and what kind of instruction they are receiving. It allows us to see if we have standards, career technical standards, and we’re doing well in our courses,” Gordon said.
Gordon also said he hopes the platform will expand to schools outside of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, especially as the push for financial literacy classes grows across California.
In October, the Attorney General's Office put an initiative on the upcoming November ballot that, if approved by voters, would require schools to offer a semester-long personal finance course for high school students by the 2026-27 school year. submitted.
“If that happens, many schools will need financial education and will need a platform to deliver content to students,” Gordon said.
Dos Pueblos Principal Bill Woodard said he is excited about improving financial literacy in public schools.
“These are the kinds of stars that are rising up in the personal finance and financial literacy space in public education,” Woodard said. “I'm obviously really proud of the app that won the contest because this is such an important topic for students, but it's the financial literacy app that's literally starting a new personal finance class at this time. The fact that the app is recognized is so cool.”
All three Santa Barbara Unified High Schools have introduced personal finance electives this year. Woodard said he hopes personal finance classes will replace or be incorporated into traditional economics classes taken by high school students.
“I hope my kids graduate high school knowing about interest rates and credit cards and being able to start a Roth IRA,” Woodard said. “People are scared about personal finance, and I think the fact that this app is user-friendly and non-intimidating makes it even more valuable.”
