April 2025 Highlights at a Glance:
- OCPS Leadership Interested in ABE
- New Dedicated ABE Website Launched
- Tremendous Trip to Tallahassee
Meeting with OCPS Executive Leaders
On April 10th, I had the great pleasure to finally connect with Rosa Grant, the Executive Leader of OCPS’ Career and Technical Education department. We met briefly when I went to address the OCPS board members last month in March, and though we had a wait a few weeks to connect, I’m glad that we had the time to do so.
Rosa MeetingAlong with Carol, Rosa shared that our ideas for the ABE programs would be well-received in Orange County. We discussed the range of materials currently being created by ABE staff, from our one-day seminar to future online offerings. In particular, she was wondering if our future content could be adapted for their technical schools, especially the financial literacy components.
We all lamented how virtually all students leave high school without the basic personal finance skills they need to succeed in the world beyond K-12. She informed me that one of their local credit union partners has a course, but that every bit of reinforcement from different approaches would definitely help them, whether they are still in high school or at one of their specialized centers.
I’ll be following up with Rosa and Carol over the summer as we get more Sunshine Standards-based curriculum prepared next month in May.
New Dedicated ABE Website Launched
After our crack dev and graphic design team tirelessly worked through much of last month and into the start of April, we are pleased to announce the official ABE website that will become the hub of our work.
The screenshot above is just the very top, so be sure to visit the website when you are done reading today’s short blog. The 45-second video featuring yours truly clearly explains our four core pillars of ABE, and our goal is to have our first Saturday seminar ready by the end of next month.
Tremendous Trip to Tallahassee
The trip to Tallahassee was well worth my time in the middle of the month. As I left on the morning of Monday, April 14th, I had 8 confirmed meetings with legislators or their aides (if the legislator couldn’t make it).
Between leaving my home and hitting the freeway, I had 10 meetings scheduled.
And as I started going to my meetings early Tuesday morning, my phone continued to ring and more meeting confirmations rolled in.
All told, I ended up having 14 separate meetings with members of the House, Senate, and/or their designated aides. About half of those were with the Representative or Senator and the other half were aides.
On top of the dedicated meetings, I personally hand delivered a short one page letter alongside our 2-page “Blockchain in Florida” one-pager to the remaining 28 aides who served legislators on the education committees. Most of the aides–who are younger already–seemed quite interested in what we’re doing, so I’ll likely reach back out to them to start setting up our next meeting in the early summer months.
And while all the aides, Representatives or Senators with whom I met showed an interest in what we have started, none of them did more so than Senator Danny Burgess, my very own Senator and the man who fundamentally changed the trajectory of ABE when our CEO Ray Alvarez and I met with him last December .
It was his suggestion that we expand into financial literacy in the context of digital assets, and as I told him during our meeting, he personally altered the course of our program for the better. Whereas before we were targeting a very specific subset of students who would already be technically inclined, starting with personal finance basics could help every student (and curious adult) in the Sunshine State.
He absolutely loved the website, watched the video, and was quite impressed after I had given him all of the updates since our last meeting four months earlier. When he looked up at me after reviewing everything and hearing me out, he simply said:
“What can I do to help you next?”
To which I replied, “Let’s get a conversation going with the FLDOE.”
Thanks for taking an interest in this month’s ABE update for April. I’ll be back next month with another dose of amazing news. Until then, if you didn’t click the hyperlink earlier, you can click here and it will take you to the new ABE website.
