The Personal Financial Planning Program at Cal State Fullerton’s College of Business and Economics has been selected to host a summer camp for high school students from July 14-18, 2025. The Financial Planning Academy, created by Texas Tech University and funded by the Charles Schwab Foundation, is a five-day summer program for sophomore, junior and senior high school students planning careers as financial planners.

Participating students will discover how to use a broad range of skills, including leadership, communication, decision-making, entrepreneurship, and marketing, in a grade-appropriate and engaging format featuring games, contests and workshop activities. Students will come away with a better understanding of how to market their personal brand and how to manage personal finances in addition to being exposed to a versatile and in-demand career path.

CSUF has been chosen for this opportunity due to the college’s goals of exposing high school students to personal financial planning as a career path and adding diversity to the financial planning profession. The College of Business and Economics is also one of the few business colleges in Southern California with a Certified Financial Planning (CFP) Board-registered program at the undergraduate level, enabling students to prepare for professional development while still in school.

HanNa Lim, finance professor and director of the Personal Financial Planning Program, says it is particularly meaningful for California institutions such as CSUF to host this workshop. “California is one of the states where personal finance courses are not mandatory for high school graduation. This restricts high school students from considering financial planning as a career path,” explains Lim. “Hosting this academy will provide opportunities for local high schoolers to expand their career options.”

About 35 high school students are expected to participate and eight to 10 CSUF business students are expected to be hired as student advisors for the camp to supervise the high school students. This will provide practical experience in mentoring, instruction and supervision for these Business Titans.

If you are a high school student, parent or teacher, learn more about the Financial Planning Academy. For more on financial planning education at CSUF, read our articles on personal financial planning.