Some of Stephanie Gervais’s students already have brokerage accounts. Others don’t have a checking account yet. Teaching both in the same classroom at Pinewood School, an independent K–12 school in Los Altos Hills, California, has shaped her guiding belief: “personal finance is personal.” Read on to learn more about this passionate educator and nonprofit founder.

Stephanie has been teaching for more than a decade. She started her career as a French teacher after moving to the U.S. at 23, launched Pinewood’s Business & Economics course in 2024, and added Personal Finance in 2025.

Outside the classroom, she founded the nonprofit InnovaTeach and its Finance Explorers program, which brings human-centered financial workshops to teens, young adults, and women in community settings.

We talked with Stephanie about her earliest money memories, the lesson she uses to challenge students’ assumptions, and why NGPF was the first place that made her think, “I can learn this.”

What is one of your earliest money memories?

Most of my earliest memories about money are connected to my mom. She was a single mom, as I am now, and she was always very careful with money because, to her, it represented safety and independence. But she also taught me that building wealth wasn’t just about the number in your bank account.

She invested in our education and took my brother and me on meaningful trips. She also bought an apartment that became part of the legacy she left us when she passed away. I try to carry that same philosophy with my son: save carefully, build independence, but spend on the things that truly matter.

Last summer, after saving for months, I was incredibly proud to take him to Hawaii and create those same kinds of memories with him.

What makes you passionate about personal finance education?

I truly can’t think of a student who won’t need what we’re learning. I also love that personal finance gives me opportunities to challenge assumptions and build empathy.

One of my favorite lessons is about bankruptcy. Before we look at the data, I ask students who they think is most likely to file for bankruptcy and why. We unpack some of the assumptions they bring into the room and then use actual data to challenge them.

Financial education isn’t only about learning how to manage your own money; it can also help you better understand other people’s financial realities.

I also tell my students all the time that “personal finance is personal.” When they create a financial plan, I don’t expect everyone to arrive at the same answer. I care about the decision-making behind it. What kind of life do you want? What matters to you? What are you willing to trade off? Their plans can look completely different and still both be financially sound.

And my favorite moment is probably when a student looks at me and says, “Wait…everyone should know this!” Then they go home and talk about it with their parents or siblings, or start explaining something to their friends. They become the teacher.

I especially love creating those opportunities for students who have historically been less represented in financial spaces, including girls and students of color. That ripple effect beyond my classroom is a huge part of why I love teaching personal finance.

Can you share more about your nonprofit InnovaTeach, and more specifically, the Finance Explorers program?

Finance Explorers grew out of my experience teaching personal finance at Pinewood. I saw how many questions my students had, and as I started researching financial education more deeply, I also learned more about the wealth gap in the U.S. and who has historically had access to financial knowledge.

That became personal for me. I’m a Black woman who was born and raised in France, and I moved to the U.S. at 23. Financial education wasn’t something I had access to, and when I arrived here, the financial world didn’t always feel very welcoming to someone who was young, an immigrant, or looked like me. I still remember getting my first credit card and realizing I didn’t really understand how it worked! I had to learn so much of this on my own.

That’s a big reason I created InnovaTeach and its Finance Explorers program. I want financial education to feel accessible and welcoming, particularly for teenagers and young adults, as well as women who may not have traditionally felt represented in financial spaces—including women navigating major life transitions like divorce.

I partner primarily with nonprofits and community organizations to offer workshops, and I try to make them very human-centered: lots of discussion, movement, humor, real-life scenarios, and plenty of stories about my own financial mistakes!

I also created free resources for parents and teenagers to learn about money together, because I want those conversations to continue at home. My goal is for people to leave feeling that personal finance is something they can understand and that the financial world belongs to them, too.

InnovaTeach is growing, which I’m incredibly happy and grateful for, and that growth has inspired another project I’m working on called OpportuniTeach.org. It’s a free platform designed to help educators discover professional development opportunities, grants, programs, competitions, and other resources that match their needs.

Do you have an example of how a lesson taught in class helped a student and/or someone in their family make a better money decision?

One of the biggest changes I see is that students start feeling empowered to ask questions about their own finances. After we learn about checking accounts and fees, for example, students go home and ask their parents, “What kind of account do I have? Are there fees?”

When we talk about credit, they start asking, “Am I an authorized user? Is this a secured card?” I’ve had students open savings accounts after learning about compound interest, and others tell me they felt much more confident asking questions at a bank or when looking into student loans.

One student came back especially excited to tell me that when his family was looking at buying and financing a car, he actually took the lead in asking questions because of what he had learned in class.

Those are my favorite moments. My goal isn’t for students to memorize financial vocabulary; it’s for them to feel confident enough to ask questions, understand their options, and have a voice in their own financial decisions.

How has being part of the NGPF network helped you personally? Professionally?

NGPF was really the first organization that made me feel like, “I can learn this.”

Everything was designed for teachers, so personal finance suddenly felt relatable and accessible. And I wasn’t just learning for myself—I was learning so I could bring it back to my students.

Because the certifications were free, I was able to build my knowledge and then go to my administration with an actual idea and the confidence to say, “I think we should have a personal finance class.” And it worked!

I build my own curriculum, but I love bringing in NGPF resources, especially the MOVE activities, real-world data, and interactive games. Those resources help me make personal finance educational, but also fun and relatable in ways that would be very difficult to create entirely on my own.

Professionally, the community has been just as important. I’m the only personal finance teacher at my school, and that can feel a little lonely sometimes. Through NGPF, I’ve met other educators, attended an incredible program at Stanford this summer, taken additional courses—including an investing course through Arizona State University—and met people like [co-founder Tim Ranzetta] who have been incredibly welcoming.

What advice do you have for other personal finance teachers?

Keep learning and keep questioning. Most importantly, remember that personal finance is personal—one answer will never fit everyone.

We can’t teach personal finance exactly like a business class because there needs to be a very human element to it. Every student comes into our classroom with a different family situation, financial reality, culture, and set of goals.

I think being a good personal finance teacher requires a lot of empathy and a willingness to listen before telling students what the “right” financial decision is.

My hope is that by making financial education more accessible and inclusive, regardless of a student’s background or circumstances, we can play a small part in helping reduce the wealth gap over time.

[AI Disclosure from Stephanie: All of the ideas, experiences, and examples shared in my responses are my own. I used AI to help organize my thoughts and translate my spoken responses into clear, polished writing while preserving my voice and original meaning.]

About the Author

Hannah Rael

As NGPF's Marketing Communications Manager, Hannah (she/her) helps spread the word about NGPF's mission to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.

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