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Nine High School Students Awarded Fall 2024 MFA Merit Scholarships
The Museum of American Finance is proud to announce that nine outstanding students have received Museum Finance Academy ( MFA ) merit scholarships for the Fall 2024 semester . The MFA is a free five-session personal finance certificate course for 11th and 12th graders with the goal of teaching students to aspire to financial independence through developing an appreciation for savings , establishing financial goals and learning to avoid scams . The Museum offers this national program in two time zones to reach students across the country .
Nicole Leal , a 17-year-old senior at the American Sign Language and English Secondary School in Manhattan , earned the top scholarship award of $ 1,000 . Her future plans are to enroll in college to pursue her dream of becoming a diagnostic medical sonographer . She said her most important
takeaway from the MFA program was learning the benefits of long-term investing and how to manage her money .
Four second-place winners received scholarships of $ 500 each . They include Jonathan Altshuler , Mikhael Bondar and Farizakhon Yunusova from James Madison High School in Brooklyn , and Jed Sloan from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan . According to Sloan , the most important thing he learned in the MFA was the power of compound interest .
“ Such a simple yet meaningful idea — that by earning amounts of interest seemingly meager on their own , one can accumulate meaningful amounts of capital — led me to reevaluate my spending habits and my perception of wealth generation ,” he said .
Four third-place scholarships were also awarded for the Fall MFA . The recipients
included Layan Alwazzan from Melissa High School in Melissa , Texas ; Clara Camano from New World High School in the Bronx ; Charlotte Ramos from James Madison High School in Brooklyn ; and Abhirup Singh from Benjamin N . Cardozo High School in Queens .
“ The lessons I learned in this five-week course will stay with me and lay the groundwork for a prosperous life ,” said Ramos . “ It has contributed much to my appreciation for understanding financial literacy and it will continue to fuel this passion of mine .”
The Museum is extremely proud of all the students who successfully completed the Fall 2024 MFA and earned their certificates in personal finance . Thank you to Con Edison for sponsoring this program .
The Museum is proud to announce that Nicole Leal , Jonathan Altshuler , Mikhael Bondar , Jed Sloan , Farizakhon Yunusova , Layan Alwazzan , Clara Camano , Charlotte Ramos and Abhirup Singh have earned merit scholarships as top achievers in the Fall 2024 semester of the Museum Finance Academy .
www . MoAF . org | Winter 2025 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 5