April 2022

It's hard to overstate the disruptive impact the pandemic has had on people. Its effect on mental health is a big one, and for teenagers, that hit particularly hard. Kathleen Ethier knows this well. She leads the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which this month published a survey that points to some very grim findings. From January to June 2021, CDC researchers collected data on the behaviors and experiences of 7,705 public and...

The Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona says personal finance lessons should be mandatory in our schools, and we certainly agree. Learn4Life has been teaching financial literacy to its high school students for the past seven years. Currently only 21 states mandate financial classes in high schools and only a few more require them available as elective courses. During Financial Literacy Month, it’s important to note that graduates of high schools with financial education are less likely to...

It was a chance meeting that brought Hayley Rico to Learn4Life. She was 17 years old, taking care of herself and her little brother because their parents who suffered from addiction were unable to properly provide for them. She had been kicked out of school for not attending regularly and was turned away from other schools because she had no permanent address to provide. Hayley happened to be at a community services event, and that evening two staff members from Learn4Life were there to talk...