Colbert Heights DECA students teach younger peers about finance

When it comes to important skills like finance and how to balance a budget, it is never too early to begin learning good habits.

That is why the Distributive Education Clubs of America, or DECA, students at Colbert Heights High School visit with students at the elementary school twice a year to teach them about the subject.

CHHS DECA students Phoebe Sanderson (president), Carter Suggs (vice president of marketing), Chassidy Simpson (vice president of hospitality), Kailee Oliver, Courtney Smith, Kylie Wilson and Izzie Fisher visited CHES on April 24 to teach their younger peers about needs versus wants.

CHHS DECA partners with the Jump Start Coalition as well as 4-H through the Colbert County Extension Office to put on the event, with Extension agent Melinda Smith helping out with the activities.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with the Jump Start Coalition,” said CHHS DECA advisor Teresa Billingsley. “We do this twice a year during the fall and spring. We teach elementary students about finance. We start them at an early age so they can become stewards of their money. Even teaching them how to count money and teaching them the basic fundamentals helps them.”

The elementary students were split up into groups and did some finance-related activities led by the high school team.

“DECA teaches you about marketing, business and stuff like that,” Sanderson said. “It will help you get into a good college and looks good on a resume. It also gets you a lot of really nice friends.”

According to the organization’s website, DECA is a global nonprofit student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. With over 319,000 members in high schools and colleges, it enhances classroom instruction through competitive events, project-based learning, and business partnerships.

Billingsley said she founded the DECA program at Colbert Heights High School in 2018, and since then the club has done “a lot of amazing things.”

“These students have received a hospitality certification and advanced to the state event at the University of Alabama last month,” she said. “They are always on fire for DECA. That’s what I love about my students. A lot of them are going into business, marketing or they want to be entrepreneurs.”

Billingsley said the skills taught by the DECA students to their elementary school peers are things that will be useful to them for their entire lives, a sentiment shared by Colbert Heights math coach Anna Shirley.

“Learning about this is vital,” Shirley said. “This is a basic part of their life and their future. If they own their own business or start a family, they have to have that foundation in math to function as a citizen.

“This is a great collaboration. This is a small community, and the kids know each other. They enjoy hearing form their older peers, and they can speak to them in some ways better than teachers can. It’s a great program.”