Creatively Educating and Empowering K-12 Teachers in our Community

Tampa, FL. February 11, 2022: The Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education received a $20,000 grant from State Farm in support of the Center’s ongoing programming for K-12 teachers to help educate students in economics and financial literacy.

For more than four decades, the Stavros Center, located in the College of Education at USF’s Tampa campus, has been recognized for excellence in economic education at the local, state and national levels. The gift provided by State Farm will allow the Stavros Center to continue its work in equipping educators across the Tampa Bay region with the knowledge and tools needed to teach financial literacy concepts in their classrooms effectively.

“Once again, State Farm has demonstrated its support of the USF College of Education with another gift to the Stavros Center to enhance the financial literacy instructional skills of K-12 educators in the USF region,” said Dick J. Puglisi, PhD, professor and director of the Stavros Center. “Over the past 12 years, State Farm has supported the Stavros Center’s professional development programs for K-12 educators and demonstrated that they recognize the importance of educators in preparing students to tackle real-world issues.”

State Farm began its partnership with the Stavros Center in 2010 to promote financial literacy education within K-12 schools. To date, the insurance company has provided more than $230,000 in financial support to the Stavros Center.

“State Farm is proud to continue supporting the USF Stavros Center’s work in creatively educating and empowering K-12 teachers in our community,” said Jose Soto, State Farm Corporate Responsibility Analyst. “The professors at the Center do an amazing job in making the virtual and in-person workshops exciting and fun for the teachers along with providing practical tools and lesson plans the teachers can easily implement in their classrooms.”

The Stavros Center works with educators and school district leaders from Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota County school districts to provide teacher training programs, curricula development efforts and other strategies that infuse free enterprise and consumer economics concepts into the classroom.

“Financial literacy is an important life skill for K-12 students that they need to learn early on so they can continue making healthy financial decisions in the future,” said R. Anthony Rolle, PhD, dean of the USF College of Education. “We are incredibly grateful to State Farm for their continued support of the Gus A. Stavros Center, and we look forward to offering more professional development opportunities for Tampa Bay teachers.”

To learn more about the work of the Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education, visit www.usf.edu/stavros.