Eva Pace, Reporter
@espcourant
“In this day and age, women make 78 cents for every dollar a man makes,” Cary Carbonaro, Certified Financial Planner, featured on CNN and The Today Show, exclaimed in the Wagner Room at NCHS last Wednesday. Males and females of all grades gathered during lunch block to hear the author of Amazon’s #1 best seller, The Money Queen’s Guide, share her message of the importance of financial independence.
Heidi D’Acosta, an English teacher at NCHS, has offered extra credit to motivate students to attend Women in the Workforce Wednesdays for the past three years. In her eyes, it is extremely important for boys as well as girls to attend the luncheon. “Cary
Carbonaro’s knowledge of money and how it applies to your college years applies to everyone,” Ms. D’Acosta said. “We’re 50/50 in the workforce, so a progressive vision of how this is going to unfold in America is equally important to males and females. ”
Having attended this event for many years, Ms. D’Acosta found this particular luncheon to be extremely influential and important. “One of the things that I have been thinking about recently is that you don’t have to be a great math person to understand finances,” she said. “Cary emphasized that it is really important to know that you’re not in it alone, and there are people whose job it is to assist you.”
While Ms. D’Acosta personally understood the importance of Cary’s message, she felt it was particularly important for youth to have a grasp of financial planning at a young age. “I hope that the students take themselves seriously in terms of educating themselves about their own finances,” Ms. D’Acosta said. “There are different financial goals for different segments of life, and the more you understand about the complexity of economics, the more you are in charge of those goals.”
Junior Sawyer Cordes was one of the few boys in the Wagner Room during first lunch to hear Cary speak. While initially, he admits, he only attended for the purpose of extra credit, he found that he left the event with an important grasp of financial planning. “As a teenager, I tend to disregard how I spend my money, but Cary made it clear that we should learn to not waste money on stupid purchases from a young age,” Sawyer said.
As a male, Sawyer felt that Cary’s message still very much applied, despite her general female outreach. “I have no idea why Cary’s message wouldn’t apply to me,” he said. “As I see it, being smart financially and planning to be successful in life is something that is gender blind.”
Tessa Piontkowski, captain of the Women in the Workforce club, saw this fifth installment of the Women in the Workforce series as a great success. “My expectation was to start a discussion and an awareness of gender differences among our school community,” Tessa said. “Because the event was well attended and our guest speaker was inspirational, I feel it was a success,” she said.
As a female herself, Tessa finds personal inspiration in hosting these Women in the Workforce Wednesday events. She sees the luncheons as an excellent opportunity to prepare herself for the inevitable disadvantages in the workplace. “I believe women can face different challenges than men, so hearing about the experiences of successful women in fields where women are underrepresented can bring attention to these differences,” she said.
Tessa felt Cary shared a very unique message to the students, which something different from the working women that have been guests in years past. “I most took away that women must be financially independent and you’re never too young to learn about personal finance,” she said.
In the coming years, Tessa seeks to increase attendees to these yearly luncheons and have even more prominent female figures attend as guests to share their insight with the students. “I hope our speakers continue to be so exciting and impactful,” Tessa said. “I’d like the Women in the Workforce Club Facebook page to be more prominent as well. Please like the page!”
