Making Money Management Modern
by Ellen Orr
Inspired by “Hamilton,” Gold Award recipient Hollan Borowitz promotes financial literacy
“Alexander Hamilton’s story shows just how much you can achieve through hard work,” said 16-year-old Hollan Borowitz, whose journey with the first Treasury Secretary began in 2015, when she saw “Hamilton” on Broadway. “I will never forget it. It has been one of the best experiences of my life,” she gushed. “When you see something that incredible . . . it moved me to an extent that’s kind of changed my entire life. It makes me feel a lot more motivated to keep doing anything I’m doing, whether it’s Girl Scouts, drill team, schoolwork, or anything else. I never expected it to inspire me the way it has.”
Perhaps Hamilton’s story of perseverance inspires Hollan so deeply because she herself exemplifies hard work and follow-through. A Girl Scout of 12 years, she has looked up to strong, accomplished women her entire life. “I’m a first-generation Girl Scout in my family,” she explained, “but my grandma was always insistent that I needed to do Girl Scouts.”
“Doing” Girl Scouts is common: 1.8 million girls in America participate in the program each year. But the Gold Award—the highest award granted—is rare, only being earned by about six percent of Scouts. That’s no surprise; the Gold Award is difficult to achieve. “You complete your Gold Award all by yourself—you do all of the research, you find your own advisor,” Hollan explained. “And, it has to benefit community and be sustainable.”
The minimum time requirement for a Gold Award project is 80 hours; Hollan’s, a labor of love, took about 93. “Whenever I saw ‘Hamilton,’ I thought to myself, ‘I know little about the American financial system, and I doubt my classmates know much either, because there is very little preparation for the real world in high school,'” she said. “As we venture into the workforce, we know nothing about what we’re getting into or how to manage our money. So I decided I’d come up with a program for students to learn basic financial literacy and money management.”
Her project, entitled “Making Money Management Modern,” is a piece of curriculum designed for high school students. It covers the story of Alexander Hamilton, financial vocabulary, calculating interest, balancing a checkbook, understanding credit cards, and the basic principles of money management. Hollan implemented her project, which includes a lecture, slideshow, and quiz, in two sections of Texas High’s financial literacy class, and the school has since decided to adopt the project into its permanent curriculum.
Though the Gold Award looks good on college and scholarship applications, Hollan recognizes that the greater benefits are unquantifiable: “Completing the Gold Award taught me a bunch of fundamental life skills,” she said: “perseverance, strength, confidence in my own qualities, and far better public speaking skills than I had before.”
A student at Texas High for two more years, Hollan will continue participating in Girl Scouts, Drill Team, Student Council, and DASH (Drug and Alcohol Safety and Health). After graduation, Hollan plans to attend a top-tier university and pursue a career as a dermatologist.
Though Alexander Hamilton may be the star of the show, it’s really in the footsteps of his wife, the hardworking woman Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, that Hollan follows. “When Alexander Hamilton died, Elizabeth’s goal was to share his story,” she explained. “She wanted to spread his story, and I’m kind of hoping to do the same thing—spreading his legacy, not only through my project’s financial literacy part but also in telling his story.”
