On July 23, 2020, I had the opportunity to speak with Aaron Story, the CEO of Elevate Indianapolis. Elevate is an intensive mentoring initiative that serves students in the IPS school district.

It all started at a prep school in Virginia. In the late 1970s, Collegiate School, a K-12 college preparatory school in Richmond, Virginia, began teaching economics to their students using a curriculum developed by the Powell Center for Economic Literacy.

Many studies have shown that financial illiteracy is one of the key contributors to the overwhelming debt and poverty plaguing many American families.

“Infusionomics is transformational for kids,” Goble said. “It’s not just a curriculum we teach. It’s a different way of teaching, integrating economic thinking into everyday learning. We began to see unanticipated benefits. Kids began using the concepts in their daily interactions, making better decisions, and achieving higher grades in core subjects.”

Infusionomics works like this: teach students economic principles (like opportunity cost, scarcity, supply and demand) and entrepreneurial skills early on and they will reverse the negative cycles that lead to intergenerational poverty.

Sagamore Institute and Office Depot Foundation hosted a conversation on cutting-edge innovation and best practices in engaging the nation’s students. Following the event, Office Depot Foundation invited NASCAR driver Tony Stewart to help them hand out backpacks to local children in Greenwood.

Sagamore Institute was delighted to host Nicole Baker Fulgham, the Founder and President of Expectations Project, to discuss her new book Educating All God’s Children. Fulgham’s book is a call to Christians to embrace their intellectual heritage in order to work to close the achievement gap between low- and high-income schools.