Throughout the senior projects, many students in Loyola AP Economics classes had the opportunity to apply their studies to the service of teaching elementary students. Seniors taught essential economic principles about human capital across over 20 different schools, and the practicality of these lessons will serve to benefit both the seniors and elementary students.
Human capital is the economic value that an individual possesses through their knowledge, ability and experience; it supports one’s job eligibility, creativity and productivity. As business environments grow increasingly competitive, developing one’s human capital is necessary for an individual’s well-being.
Brian Held ‘93, teacher of these AP classes, encouraged his senior students to incorporate what they have learned about human capital into their curricula to simultaneously reinforce their own understanding of fundamental economics while passing their knowledge forward. Held also helped to facilitate the lessons by making the presentation of the material more engaging.
Held stated, “When you teach something, you learn it. It’s not only a great way for students to learn applicable lessons about economics, but it really helps to solidify each senior’s knowledge of core economic principles.”
Lucas Damasco ‘23 volunteered for the service opportunity at St. Lucy Catholic School, and he used his experience in AP Economics to teach a fourth-grade class the basics of human capital. He came up with creative methods to describe the complexities of the AP curriculum in order to maximize the learning potential of each lesson.
Damasco explained, “For my lesson, I read the kids a children’s story and had them identify areas of human capital. I then had them reflect on their own human capital, which in turn empowered them when they realized how special they really are. Finally, in order to help develop public speaking skills, I encouraged them to present what they wrote down on their papers in front of the whole class.”
Damasco also gained a newfound gratitude for his own teachers in the process as he said, “While it was very fun, it was also very eye-opening because it exposed me to how much work teachers put in day in and day out. My appreciation for my teachers grew significantly after I finished teaching for just one hour.”
Despite the senior service project ending in February, AP Economics students will return to their sites later in the second semester to continue with their lessons. A primary goal of the service is to facilitate the realization that everyone has unique contributions to make and to recognize the distinctive characteristics of each person.
When asked about his return to teach about opportunity cost in March, senior Martin Boskovich said, “It was definitely a positive experience, and I’m glad that we’re able to go back to teach some more lessons. The kids at Our Mother of Good Counsel were really fun to teach, and I’m looking forward to expanding my experience when I go back in March.”
Held remarked, “We’re hoping to reinforce that this is an important lesson not just for filling out a multiple-choice quiz, but for crucially understanding that everyone’s unique human capital is their most important asset. Hopefully, that message resonates with the elementary school kids because it’s a message that transcends the rest of the subject. It’s empowering.
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