A 501(c)(3) built in a California classroom
A complete personal finance course for California high schools. Book sales and donations fund $1,000 scholarships, and students invest part of each scholarship themselves in a real brokerage account.
What we make
Each one stands on its own. Together they cover a semester of personal finance and the biggest financial decision a teenager makes.
Web app · Free
Six units, Real Takes, a live teacher dashboard, and a pre/post assessment built in.
For: Personal finance, economics, and advisory classes, grades 11–12.
Keeps: A Flight Plan, their own financial plan with goals and real money moves, and a Passport, the record of what they learned.
Free for every teacher and student
Print companion
The quick activities, the Advisor Series, and every Real Take in one workbook. The Teacher’s Guide is a free download.
For: Teachers who want the paper half of The Launchpad in every student’s hands.
Keeps: Students keep their written reasoning, unit by unit.
Amazon retail · 10 or more save 10%
Book · Fifth Edition
Choosing a college that fits and knowing you can afford it, taught as one decision. Also runs as a unit inside The Launchpad.
For: College seminar, AVID, senior English, advisory, and dual enrollment.
Keeps: Students keep a Money Map, a Running List, and a Decision Dashboard.
$15 per copy for schools · Single copies on Amazon
Also free: the College Roadmap, the Life Stage Calculator, and the Arcade. See the free tools
How it’s different
Written, coded, and taught daily by the same California teacher. Units build on each other, so there is nothing to assemble.
Cal Grant, CADAA, CalKIDS, and the Dream Act are in the lessons, and each AB 2927 topic is mapped to the module that teaches it. Nothing to adapt.
A Flight Plan of real money moves they make in real life, and a Passport of what they learned, stamped unit by unit.
Book sales and donations fund $1,000 scholarships. Scholars invest part of their award in a real brokerage account and present their strategy to professionals.
The Finance Lab Scholarship
Book sales and donations fund $1,000 scholarships for students from low-income and first-generation families. Part of each scholarship is invested by the student, so the last lesson is a real one.
Class sets, single copies, and donations fund the scholarship.
Given to a high school student in four $250 milestones.
Goals, risk, portfolio, presentation. Money follows learning.
Scholars invest at least 10% of the award in real markets.
Scholars present their strategy to a panel of professionals.
Every class set ordered and every gift funds the next scholar.
Where the money goes: a $250 gift funds one milestone and four fund a full scholarship. Book proceeds and donations pay for the scholarships, student programming, and keeping The Launchpad free.
Our mission
We give students the financial skills to build wealth, because a plan and a portfolio should not be privileges. Our scholarship reserves that head start for students from low-income and first-generation families.
Who we serve
Our resources are built for every student, in every kind of classroom. Our scholarship and student programming focus on young people from low-income, underserved communities, particularly those from first-generation families: students navigating a financial system that was never designed with them in mind.
The gap between knowing and not knowing is the difference between upward mobility and staying stuck. We exist to close that gap.
Free classroom curriculum · Grades 11–12
A complete personal finance curriculum for high school classrooms, delivered as a web app. Students join with a class code and a first name. Teachers watch understanding shift in real time.
The teacher dashboard with a sample class. This is the live product, captured from the demo.
What students keep
The Launchpad teaches, and it also plans. Every student leaves with a financial plan they wrote for themselves and a record of what they learned, both theirs to keep.
Each student’s own financial plan. They write what financially healthy means for them, set goals, and choose real moves from every unit: open a no-fee checking account, set an automatic transfer to savings, name a savings goal with a date, file the FAFSA, check a credit report. Each move gets a target date and is marked to-do, planned, or done the day they make it.
The record of what they learned. Every unit a student finishes adds a stamped section with the key ideas, their own numbers, and their own answers, in one document they can download and keep after the course ends.
Ready for AB 2927
California high schools must offer a standalone personal finance course starting in 2027–28, and it becomes a graduation requirement with the class of 2031. Every required topic in Ed Code § 51284.5 is mapped to the module that teaches it.
See the topic-by-topic mapTry it
Create a real class in a few minutes. Students join with a class code and a first name, with no student emails or accounts.
Live class-level outcomes as students work. Impact data survives roster changes, exports to CSV, and ships with standards alignment and pacing guides.
Assign one module, one unit, or a full semester. Every unit stands on its own.
Short decision activities that put a common money misconception on the table, like “Do you even have to file?” Each ships in digital and print.
Cal Grant, CADAA, CalKIDS, and the CA Dream Act are built in. Nothing to adapt.
Timing, discussion prompts, and the misconceptions to expect, written for the teacher running the room.
Every module asks the same questions before and after, so the change in understanding is visible for each student and the whole class.
In print
The Launchpad Activity Workbook is the print companion: the quick activities, the Advisor Series, and every Real Take in one place. The Teacher’s Guide is a free download with an answer key, pacing, and a run sheet for every activity. Ordering 10 or more workbooks? Take 10% off.
Outcomes
believed they could afford a 4-year public university
believed they could afford a 4-year private university
Prior pilot, The College Project, at a Title I California high school. The percentages compare a pre-course survey with a post-course survey. These are belief and stress measures, not knowledge measures. The Launchpad’s own pre/post assessment runs with its first cohort in fall 2026; write to us for either instrument. How we measure
“I’ve used The College Project in my classroom for several years. My students found many of their questions answered in this comprehensive, insightful book.”
“For once we weren’t being left alone in the dark.”
Who builds it
Tyler Hensley
Founder & Executive Director
A California classroom teacher who began his career in wealth management, Tyler designs, writes, and builds every Finance Lab resource, and teaches them to his own students daily.
Krista Meyers
Director of Programs
A veteran classroom teacher with a counseling credential, Krista currently teaches Dual Enrollment College Seminar. She leads The Finance Lab’s programs, from classroom rollouts to the scholarship.
The College Project
One decision, taught end to end: choosing a college that fits and knowing you can afford it before you commit. Four parts, 19 chapters, and three artifacts each student builds: a Money Map, a Running List, and a Decision Dashboard. It also runs as a unit inside The Launchpad.
Bring it to your district
No contract, no procurement cycle, no student accounts. A pilot is one teacher, one section, and a few weeks.
See the teacher dashboard with a sample class. No signup.
Assign Banking & Saving to one section. Students join with the code and a first name.
Share the pre/post shift from your dashboard and we will walk through it with you.
Or write to team@thefinancelab.co. A teacher answers.