Peninsula Bridge, San Mateo, CA
I spent my internship this summer as a teaching assistant with Peninsula Bridge, a nonprofit organization based in the Bay Area. Peninsula Bridge is an organization that serves low-income, high-achieving students by providing them with educational opportunities and specialized support through middle and high school. As a teaching assistant, I helped put together and lead the presentations for meetings with the students, led office hours to help with their understanding of the material, and provided feedback on their final presentations.
The class I assisted aims to teach fundamentals of finance and investing. Peninsula Bridge partnered with Capital Group to give presentations to students on different aspects of investing in each class. Sessions ranged from basic personal finance to what makes a good investment and how to invest. In teaching these students, I too learned a few lessons, such as patience and how to engage a crowd with little background knowledge on the subject matter. My goal at the end of the internship was to educate the students to a point where they had the opportunity to become as passionate about investing as me. These insights helped make me a better teacher and even a better learner in environments where I am the student down the line. Additionally, the skills I have gained from this experience will translate into other areas of my life, such as exposure to environments where I am expected to lead will help me in basketball, in the classroom and in future professional endeavors.
One of the greatest takeaways from this experience is the importance of simplicity. I’ve heard it said that once you know something you should be able to explain it to a younger child in simple terms, and this internship really helped me realize what I do and don’t actually know. Most of the material we covered was actually pretty complex information that we as teachers had to convey in simple terms in a way that the students could understand it. This teaching experience helped me with the ability to convey complex information in an elementary concept, which I believe is a valuable skill to have. These lessons are likely things of value that I would not have been able to encounter in a classroom setting, so I am fortunate to have had this opportunity over the summer.
I am grateful for the support from the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Class of 1951. I walked away from this summer experience with a deeper understanding of basic investing skills, and I hope to continue to use this knowledge to teach others.
Megamenu Social