By Max Sheikh
Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS) is adding two new classes to its curriculum, those being a financial literacy course and Debate Honors. These two classes will offer students skills that will apply both in everyday life and later in a professional context.
The new elective course titled Debate Honors will be offered starting during the 2025-2026 school year. This advanced class will offer students more significant opportunities to develop their skills in argumentation, public speaking, and critical thinking. Debate Honors would be ideal for students who have taken earlier levels of debate, such as the Speech and Debate Club offered at Alice B. Landrum Middle School. This class is perfect for students ready to take on more difficult material.
PVHS counselor Kimberly Grillo, who provided information about the class, described how it could help students. “It’s great for students interested in politics and law. Not only that, but debating skills are awesome skills to have,” she said. Grillo also showed how these skills can apply beyond specific careers. “Knowing how to present a point of view with evidence and being able to communicate are great skills to have.”
Debate Honors is a new opportunity for students to explore their interests and develop important life skills, with the limited elective options currently available at PVHS. The class is particularly appealing for students planning careers in politics, law, business, or leadership; it is also helpful for anyone who wants to improve their communication and confidence in public speaking.
Besides debate, PVHS will add a financial literacy course, which will be required for the class of 2027 and beyond, will officially begin in the 2026-2027 school year. Students can currently take it online as an elective. The class is part of a statewide initiative under the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act, passed to address what lawmakers called a critical gap in education. The act requires all high school students in Florida to take at least a half credit in personal finance to graduate. The course will have practical topics involving budgeting, money management, taxes, and banking that will prepare students with real-life skills needed later in life.
“Learning to budget and be financially responsible is something that is not always talked about, so setting students up as they leave their parents at 18 is a positive in my eyes,”
Ashlee Henderson
Assistant Principal Ashlee Henderson shared why the course is such an important addition. “Learning to budget and be financially responsible is something that is not always talked about, so setting students up as they leave their parents at 18 is a positive in my eyes,” she said. Henderson also talked about how the course was created to manage eventual financial stress by teaching students to make thoughtful decisions with their money. This will help them in life as they go off to college, enter the workforce, or do whatever it is they choose to do.
One unique feature of the financial literacy course is its shorter duration. Unlike most PVHS classes that run for the entire school year, this course is designed as semester-long. This creates a scheduling challenge since PVHS does not currently offer other semester-long electives to pair with it. To solve this issue, the school is considering options like introducing a complementary semester-long course to match with financial literacy or potentially making it a year-long course to ease students’ schedules.
The school has not yet decided how the success of the course will be measured, but Henderson believes its creation alone is a win. “Any financial literacy for students is considered a success,” she said. Even with a simple knowledge of how to manage finances, the students are bound to stay away from the pitfalls of getting into debt or mismanaging their budgets. In this respect, by preparing the student with these skills early on, the school is giving them the tools to navigate real-world challenges.
Together, the two new classes stand for PVHS’s commitment to helping students be successful. Financial literacy will provide students with knowledge and confidence to handle the tasks of budgeting and saving money. Debate Honors will teach the students how to articulate their thoughts, defend their ideas, and create meaningful conversations. In addition to life skills, PVHS will address special interest areas to enable the students to face challenges in an ever-changing world.
Graphic done by Ryder Navarra
