May 2025 Highlights at a Glance:
- Heading South to Sarasota Schools
- Meeting Senator Lori Berman
- Dedicated SB 1054 Page on ABE Website
- Cross-Curricular Collaboration with W3F
Heading South to Sarasota Schools
After a busy month of travel to Dubai and Toronto, I got back into advocacy mode and made my way to the final large school district that is within 2 hours of driving distance. Unbeknownst to me before I made the trip, I learned that a former colleague from Hillsborough County had since taken over as the Superintendent of Sarasota Schools.
In my comments that you can view HERE , I share with Superintendent Connor and the five Sarasota School Board members some of our recent successes in Tallahassee, as well as what we are beginning to roll out with our focus on financial literacy. I forwarded the email I had written to the board members to Superintendent Connor himself, and the very next morning, he replied, stating that he would review all of the information with the relevant district leadership team members and get back to me next month after graduation season subsided. Hopefully, I will have more good news on that front next month in June.
Meeting Senator Lori Berman
Despite running the gauntlet through 14 different meetings last month while in Tallahassee, it was impossible to visit with every Senator or Representative who sits on the education committees in their respective chamber of the legislature. In my monthly update emails, however, while soliciting feedback on our new ABE website , I received a reply from Senator Berman’s aide Evelyn, to coordinate a meeting.
It was a great meeting overall and Senator Berman was highly impressed by the traction we have made in communicating with several school districts around my home of Hillsborough County. She also commended us for our work with Senator Burgess and encouraged us to continue our efforts in building out a curriculum that could help support the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act (aka SB 1054). We concluded our brief meeting by promising to keep in touch over the coming months as we prepared to roll out content both in person and online for Florida’s students.
ABE Debuts New Dedicated SB 1054 Landing Page
Our cracked devs ship fast here at Ardent, and under the direction of our Head of Strategy, they quickly architected a brand new landing page dedicated to SB 1054, otherwise known as the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act.
While she was serving in the Senate, former State Senator Dorothy Hukill tried, without luck for many years, to pass a bill that would ensure Florida students received a proper education on personal finance. Although she passed away a few years ago, the Florida Senate finally crafted a comprehensive bill that was signed into law in 2022. This law states that, beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, all students throughout the Sunshine State must complete a course that provides a half credit and is a graduation requirement.
In an effort to help school districts around the state, ABE is working on content that will cover the topics in the bill that align with Sunshine State standards. I have initiated outreach efforts to the FLDOE in the hopes of finding the person who oversees this particular implementation so that we can possibly create a joint venture with FLVS (Florida Virtual School) that will allow students to take the class online with our materials.
If you’d like to view the new dedicated page, we’d be honored to receive feedback on it and make any changes you believe are necessary (especially if you are a member of the FLDOE or a district leadership team looking to collaborate on this with us). You can view the new page by clicking HERE .
Cross-Curricular Collaboration with Web3 Foundation
I closed out the month by spending a few days attending the University of Miami’s 3rd annual “Business of Blockchain Technology” conference that was sponsored by Polkadot. Considering I have been personally involved in the ecosystem, I was invited to join the conference due to my knowledge of the Polkadot network as well as my work as the Ardent Blockchain Education Liaison.
The Web3 Foundation is the non-profit arm of the Polkadot ecosystem that is focused on education and research. Although their “Polkadot Blockchain Academy” is targeted more toward adults in general and developers in particular, the members of the PBA and W3F were keen to learn more about our work at Ardent and how we are trying to bring blockchain education to the masses, starting at the high school level here in Florida.
It was a great experience all around across three days in which we networked with professors, graduate students, and local business leaders who are working in the blockchain industry. All of them had many questions about how blockchain will change our world, the workforce here in Florida, and noted that the University of Miami is making strides to prepare their own students by currently offering two different courses on blockchain technology.
W3FStay tuned for our next update, where we will have more great news to share for the month of June!
