A couple of weeks ago, our school got a special visit! It was an opportunity to highlight our school branch- Cavaliers Credit Union- of the South Florida Education Federal Credit Union (SFEFCU). The school branch is run by Academy of Finance intern students under the guidance of Mr. Robert Fernandez from the SFEFCU-Special Services Department and his supervisor Ms. Soley Gonzalez.

The Academy of Finance (AOF) at Coral Gables Senior High is currently developing a partnership with eMerge Americas located on Miracle Mile. Recently, Assistant Principal Joseph Evans and AOF Lead Teacher Anna Carranza visited eMerge Americas to discuss future projects. The two met Ms. Tatiana Campuzano from the Miami Council for International Vistors (MCIV), as they coordinated a visit for one of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) members, Mr. Marcus Ndong Okenve.

“They have many people that they work with. We talked about setting up our students with different internships to match the different academies we have here at school,” Principal Mr. Adolfo Costa.

Mr. Ndong Okenve visited us to observe and discuss the educational model used in our school branch. He is working on educating people in his country, Equatorial Guinea, about entrepreneurship opportunities.

The student interns, Amir Rasul, Erick Aday, Eva Hernandez and Adam Gonzalez all had an opportunity to share their experiences in the academy with Mr. Ndong Okenve. The students are in an Honors Financial Internship class and earn community service hours. They complete different projects that include marketing the credit union in school as well as serving as “tellers” during the branch’s hours of operations- Tuesday/Wednesday 12 p.m- 3 p.m.

“I feel that the academy of finance is doing a really great job in assisting it’s students in finding internships and jobs that will help them in the future. There are new and great opportunities that we as AOF students get and I am really thankful for the experiences and knowledge I’ve gained in my years as a finance student,” junior Alexandra Herrera said.

Mr. Ndong Okenve had many questions and even more ideas to allow AOF to work with him and aspiring entrepreneurs from Guinea Ecuatorial. Our Cavaliers are planning to Skype and develop financial lessons that can be used at there to teach others what we have learned in our academy. Look out for great things to come out of this wonderful partnership!