By Rowan Chetty, Co-T/E Life Editor
Accounting and personal finance teacher Bernadette D’Emilio has taught at Conestoga since 2006. After obtaining a degree in Accounting at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State, D’Emilio worked at a public accounting firm before transitioning to teaching business classes at Sun Valley High School in 2003 for three years.
Q: What led you to a career in teaching?
A: I worked after college at Arthur Andersen, which was a public accounting firm. I audited a bunch of different companies, and I got my CPA certificate. I loved my job, but Arthur Andersen went out of business because of the Enron scandal. Literally, we got to work one day, the doors were shut. We were all out of a job. I decided to go work for another company in their internal audit department, and I didn’t enjoy it. I met one of my husband’s friends that he had gone to high school with who taught business education at the Mount, which is a private girls school in Chestnut Hill. When I met her, I was fascinated that she taught business education. I really loved, obviously, the business world, so I went and observed one of her classes, and I enrolled at Gwynedd Mercy, got my certificate, and I’ve been teaching ever since.
Q: Why is financial literacy important?
A: Financial literacy is so important for so many reasons. I always say to kids, “You’re not gonna walk out of here a financial expert.” Because I do teach personal finance to a lot of freshmen, I think that sometimes they don’t understand everything I’m saying, but if I can help kids avoid a lot of the financial pitfalls, if I can help them get started investing early, I think it can change their lives. High school is a good time — because so many kids work, they’re more engaged and interested in money. I have a lot of my students who end up opening up mutual funds and investing in Roth IRAs, so it’s the perfect time to hit them with that literacy.
Q: If your students had one takeaway from your class, what would it be?
A: I say this to them all the time: Start early. If you start investing early, then you’re gonna make your financial life a lot easier as you go.
Q: How do the lessons you teach translate into your daily life?
A: I’m learning every day as I teach. A lot of times I have students do projects where they research public companies to invest in, and almost every semester, based on their presentations, I pick companies to invest in. Every day at home, I’m talking to my own kids about stuff that we talk about here, so it’s a constant thread throughout my life.
Q: What do you like about teaching at Conestoga?
A: I love the classes that I teach because they’re pretty relatable to the real world. Kids are pretty engaged because they’re worried about money. They like to invest. They like money, and I love teaching at Conestoga (because) I live in the district. I have four kids, two of which are here, so my kids walk in with me every day, which is pretty cool.
Q: What is a piece of advice you would give to your students?
A: Students here are so wrapped up in success, whatever success means, if anything. Just be true to yourself, be kind, and success just naturally follows.
Rowan Chetty can be reached at [email protected].
