High School Personal Finance Program with Solana & Jupiter

General
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High School Personal Finance Program with Solana & Jupiter

This project grew out of the JUP community. I originally learned about a Solana Foundation Canada grant during JUP Rally, and applied with the idea of creating a high school personal finance course that directly integrates the Solana ecosystem and Jupiter tools.

The guiding principle: students learn best by actually holding and using assets. Instead of abstract theory, the course puts crypto into their hands and connects traditional finance concepts to live DeFi experiences.

What We Did

  • Staff onboarded: Used the first portion of the grant to bring in a tech coordinator and a teaching assistant to support classroom integration.

  • Conference launch: Ran a crypto giveaway + demo at the First Nations Schools Association (FNSA) Education Conference in Vancouver in May. Presented Jupiter Mobile Wallet and crypto basics to ~60 teachers and administrators.

  • Wallet setup: Created a class wallet, a mobile onboarding wallet, Chromebook browser wallets, and Jupiter Instant Wallets for student use.

  • Curriculum adapted: Materials from Junior Achievers BC and the Center for Economic Education were updated with Jupiter products built directly into the lessons.

  • Class launched: The program began in August and runs through December. A module gave each student a Solana wallet and started with receiving assets, then making swaps on Jupiter Exchange.

  • School support: Principal approval secured to integrate the course into the personal finance program.

  • Applied theory: Lessons designed around loss aversion psychology — giving students assets upfront so they have a stake in saving and growing them.

Curriculum: Personal Finance with Solana & Jupiter

The course is mapped to BC’s ADST & Career Education curriculum. Each core finance concept is paired with a Jupiter/Solana application.

Topic Core Concept Jupiter / Solana Application
Wallets & Security Wallet creation, seed phrases, fees Create Phantom/Solflare wallet → first trade via Jupiter Swap
Currencies & FX CAD, USD, Euro exchange Jupiter cross-asset swaps with USDC, EURC, and CADC for forex
Inflation & Saving Inflation vs assets Compare USDC vs GLDx (tokenized gold on Solana), emissions tracked on-chain
Centralized vs DeFi Banks vs decentralized protocols Swap on Jupiter aggregator vs screenshot of a centralized exchange
Lending & Borrowing Credit, collateral, interest Demonstrate lending/borrowing through Jupiter Lend
Bonds & Compound Interest Yield and compounding Stake JUP, JLP (Jupiter Liquidity Pool), or hold syrupUSDC, track rewards
Stocks & Governance Stocks, shareholder democracy Use StockX for tokenized equities + Jupiter DAO governance
Digital Literacy Security, scams Practice signing/declining in Phantom; analyze phishing attempts
Indigenous Finance Sovereign & community currencies Compare MazaCoin (Lakota) with Solana-based community tokens

Documentation

Progress was documented, please check it out:

Closing

Thanks to Solana Foundation Canada and inspiration from JUP Rally, the project moved from concept to reality: a functioning high school finance program where students swap, lend, and stake assets using Jupiter protocols.

The outcome is a curriculum that unites traditional financial literacy with hands-on DeFi experience, powered by Solana and Jupiter.

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This is a nice idea. Though given nearly all of Jupiter’s revenue comes from essentially gambling behaviour on chain (as does nearly all of Solana’s activity) do you think that’s a hurdle for getting this into schools?

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Pedagogy in the Cracks
Educators use small gaps in rigid curricula to introduce critical, progressive teaching methods, or innovative topics, in less regulated settings (e.g., community schools). These flexible environments tolerate innovative approaches, unlike large mainstream institutions with strict standards.

Crypto Investing vs. Gambling
Crypto investing involves owning assets with potential value growth, driven by research and strategy, unlike gambling’s pure chance and fixed odds. Speculation uses analysis to influence outcomes, while gambling offers little control or ownership, relying significantly for most on luck. Many excellent resources are available for advising younger learners about the dangers of gambling.