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Five High School Students Awarded Spring 2026 Museum Finance Academy Merit Scholarships
By Kristin Aguilera, Deputy Director
The Museum of American Finance is proud to announce that five outstanding students have earned Museum Finance Academy( MFA) merit scholarships for the Spring 2026 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.
Nisat Sowa, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, earned the top scholarship award of $ 1,000. She said the program gave her insight into several financial topics she had never explored
before and that it went far beyond what she learned in school.
“ The Museum Finance Academy gave me knowledge I can actually use. I want to start investing early, plan for retirement from the beginning, be more aware of taxes and share what I learned with my family and younger siblings,” Sowa said.“ This is the kind of knowledge that can really shape someone’ s future, and I am really grateful I had the chance to learn it.”
Four runners-up also received MFA scholarship awards. They include Flora Chen( junior, Bronx High School of Science), Shion Hishida( senior, Stuyvesant High School), Siam Sarkar( senior, Science Skill Center High School) and Ziying Zhang( senior, Stuyvesant High School).
According to Chen, the most valuable financial lesson she learned in the MFA is about compound interest.
“ At first, it seems simple, earning interest on money saved, but in reality, it can have a huge impact on long-term financial growth,” she said.
The Museum is extremely proud of all the students who successfully completed the Spring 2026 MFA and earned their certificates in personal finance. Registration for the Fall 2026 semester will open in late August, with programs offered on Mondays and Tuesdays, beginning in mid-October. More information can be found at www. moaf. org / mfa.
The Museum is grateful to Fitch Group for its continued support of this program.
The Museum is proud to announce that( pictured left to right, top to bottom) Nisat Sowa, Flora Chen, Shion Hishida, Siam Sarkar and Ziying Zhang have earned merit scholarships as top achievers in the Spring 2026 semester of the Museum Finance Academy.
www. MoAF. org | Spring / Summer 2026 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 5