Ohio State academy teaches high schoolers financial planning basics

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Ohio State academy teaches high schoolers financial planning basics

Students learned personal finance, estate planning at week-long program

In an effort to promote financial literacy and encourage young people to consider careers in finance, The Ohio State University recently paired 40 central Ohio high schoolers with Columbus-based financial professionals.

Ohio State's College of Education and Human Ecology (EHE) hosted the 2025 Financial Planning Academy at the Columbus campus June 23-27. Ohio State was one of five universities around the country that hosted the academy, which was created by Texas Tech University and funded by the Charles Schwab Foundation.

The academy is designed to enhance high school students' understanding of personal finance and the financial planning profession, said Caezilia Loibl, a professor in EHE's Department of Human Sciences who administers the academy with George Rooney and Katelyn Tatum.

"We cover all the main topics: cash and debt, investing and retirement," Loibl said. "We [also] do insurance and estate planning."

The high school juniors, sophomores and seniors worked in small groups on a financial planning case study. Under the supervision of financial planning professionals and Ohio State students majoring in finance-related subjects, the student groups created financial plans and competed for scholarships and prizes.

"It's a case study about a couple who is doing well, but they have some financial issues and questions," Loibl said. "Texas Tech writes a case study every year, and it's perfectly written for this audience."

The academy concluded with group presentations in which the students discussed the financial plans they drafted for the fictional couple. Several of the financial planning professionals served on a judging panel and gave the students feedback on their presentations.

The students also pitched ideas for starting their own financial planning firms and asked family members in attendance to act as mock investors.

"Each visitor - the parents, the siblings, the families - gets a thousand dollars of play money to invest in those ideas," Loibl said.

Binta Ndiaye, a Cristo Rey Columbus High School graduate who will be a first-year student at Ohio State this fall, said she learned personal finance lessons during the academy that will benefit her throughout life.

"I'm thinking, well, if you're making $6,000 a month, you're pretty much set. But then you have to look at everything that you have to buy: your health insurance, paying off debts and the little bills that you have here and there, maybe your streaming services and stuff that you don't really think about," she said. "Budgeting was a big highlight for me."

Cameron Uttley, a senior financial planner with John E. Sestina and Company, said he was impressed by the students' incisive questions and observations.

"This group is going to have such a head start," he said. "If they retain even just 25% of what they learned this week, they're going to be so much ahead of their peers and those even older than them."

Chase Studer, an Ohio State business and financial planning major, said participating in the academy was as much of a learning experience for him as it was for the high schoolers he mentored.

"I wanted to do this to learn myself, but more to help younger students take this opportunity and learn from it because I did not have this opportunity while I was in high school," he said. "They're a lot farther ahead than I was at their age."

Diamond Zimmerman, an Ohio State alumna who is now a client services associate with NorthAvenue Financial Advocates, also mentored the high school students. She said the academy offers an opportunity for young people to gain a clearer understanding of how money works.

"I think they're gaining a deeper appreciation for how hard their parents work and understanding that … they can be good stewards over their finances, and then applying that to their everyday life," she said. "They're getting this excellent information at a very early age that will no doubt have a good impact on the rest of their lives."

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