Filing your taxes? These Modesto high school students have the financial literacy to help

This income tax season, more than 100 community members have received help from Downey High School students to prepare and file their returns.

The students are in the school’s marketing career and technical education class and Future Business Leaders of America group.

Tera Coleman, the teacher and adviser of the class and organization at Downey, said it was important for her to teach financial literacy to help the community and to prepare her students for their careers and higher education.

Coleman said she wasn’t taught financial literacy until she was 25, and she wished she’d learned about it in high school because many huge financial decisions come once a student graduates. She hopes more schools offer programs to teach students about financial literacy

“I think having that education at a younger age can help them build up towards that and they’re not making poor financial decisions that could either change the trajectory of their lifestyle or their career choices,” she said.

For Coleman’s capstone course for her students, she contacted United Way of Stanislaus County to have the teens assist in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program to help community members file their taxes. The students received Internal Revenue Service training and started the tax help work Feb. 15.

While appointments are booked through April, people interested can still call United Way Stanislaus to get on its wait list if there are cancellations. They can also go to myfreetaxes.org to schedule appointments as they may open up. Additionally, they will continue to complete tax returns after tax day.

Briseyda Calderon, a senior at Downey, said it was motivating to see how impactful it is to help the community. “We were able to provide (help) for Spanish speakers that might have not been able to receive the tax service they were looking for,” she said. “It was just really rewarding to see that we could help so many people in our community.”

Sage Verschelden, another senior at Downey, who interns with United Way, said he feels like he and his classmates are prepared more for the real world after their course with Coleman.

He is pursuing a career in finance and said he believes having a practical experience with financial literacy, being able to process tax documents and have conversations with community members, is giving him training he’ll need.

“Those are all lifelong skills that I’m gonna have to use in my future career,” he said. “So not only is it helping me build my career skills, but it’s also building my people skills.”

Calderon and Verschelden both plan to study business in college. Calderon is looking to attend a local college while Verschelden plans to look state and nationwide.

Coleman said this volunteer work has been remarkable for her students because they are competitive and want to outdo one another in how many tax returns they’re preparing.

“I love the culture that this has really created on our campus. It’s crazy to think that kids think taxes are cool.”