By Miles Layton

EDENTON — We have good students at John A. Holmes High School — very proud of the Aces and I know what they can accomplish.

Check this out: Three John A. Holmes High School students are teaching their peers and neighbors the money basics many people never learn in a classroom.

Emma Toney, Giovanni Salinas and Amahni Norman make up the school’s chapter of Building Financial Futures of America, a student-run nonprofit that teaches teenagers financial literacy. The chapter joined the organization in late June, a few months after BFF officially launched as a 501(c)3.

Emma helped me put this story together — thanks! She ran cross-country with my oldest son, Robert; now she’s running with Joseph.

BFF was founded by three North Carolina students: Vrund, Toby and Liam. It now has more than 80 chapters.

Toney, the chapter’s founder, said she started it to help people in her community who don’t know the basics of personal finance.

“I went into high school not knowing my finances, and I didn’t want others to have the same issue,” said Toney, a JROTC leader and student-athlete. “So when I saw BFF, I saw that as a chance to give others the opportunity to get ahead of the game.”

Salinas and Norman joined soon after. Salinas said Toney couldn’t take on the work alone and he wanted to help her reach her goal.

“Even though I moved shortly after becoming a founder, I still wanted to be involved in some way with this impact,” Salinas said. “Instead of being at workshops or meetings, I help run the social media that spreads info across the globe. I really enjoy impacting others even if it’s through a screen.”

A top-notch student and leader on campus, Norman said he came in as a co-founder because he wanted to teach other students financial skills and learn them himself along the way.

“I have a lot of past knowledge on finance, so when Emma offered me a spot as a co-founder, I gladly accepted because I wanted to teach others the importance of finance,” Norman said.

The students spent part of the summer at Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library, hosting workshops for community members. They have kept the workshops going during the school year, planning and leading each one themselves.

BFF is also pushing for a change in state education policy. The organization wants financial literacy added to the eighth grade social studies curriculum in a way that doesn’t change the pace teachers already follow.

The chapter’s goal, Norman said, is simple.

“We want to impact our community in the strongest way possible,” Norman said. “Those who are in our chapter, we want to teach them so well that they can go out and spread the information they learned to others. That’s our simple goal.”