Kim Cline sat stunned in her chair.

The academy of finance director at East Davidson High School had listened and clapped appreciatively for the various schools standing up to receive one of the National Academy Foundation’s (NAF) five awards, just as she had every other year she attended the national conference. To hear her school’s Academy of Finance announced the winner of the 2010 Aldo Papone Award for Curriculum and Instruction, however, took her completely by surprise.

“I was speechless,” Cline said. “I’m not sure that is normal for me, but honestly, I had no words for it.”

Out of 600 academies nationwide, NAF distributes five awards in various aspects of academic prowess at its annual convention, this year in Philadelphia on July 8. The Aldo Papone Award for Curriculum and Instruction — named for the retired chairman and chief executive office of American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. — recognizes excellence in NAF’s academies that are on the leading edge of high school reform.

“We worked very hard, and the kids are really learning, and we’re really preparing them for the 21st century,” said Cline, who added that the program began only nine years ago. “We have really come a long way with the program. It’s amazing what our faculty has done with these students. They’ve really taken it to the next level.”

NAF serves as a partnership between business leaders and educators and strives to support the development of students towards personal and professional success, both in high school and beyond. Recipients of NAF’s five awards get not only a plaque but also $5,000, which Cline says East Davidson’s Academy of Finance will use for student scholarships, awards and program support.

“That money will be used to go back toward the students,” Cline said. “That’s the whole mission — to better prepare these students for the real world.”

The only Academy of Finance in Davidson County, the program wasn’t the first NAF academy in the area. Davidson County Schools Public Relations Officer Meredith Palmer says that the county offers six academies: finance, medical, pre-engineering, Air Force, biotechnology and bio-medical.

“Students who have that particular interest or think they might really want to go into that particular field can use their elective courses in high school not to take a variety of interests but to take courses that are related to that finance major, that finance interest,” Palmer said. “Their whole high school curriculum would be keeping an eye on that finance academy, which is a certification that comes with their high school diploma.”

For example, when students in the Academy of Finance register for their required math course, they will sign up for the course that aligns with the finance interest.

Cline says the program is fairly structured. Once a student signs up for the Academy of Finance, he or she is enrolled in principals of finance and accounting, which teaches personal finance and budgeting. The kids take scenarios of various jobs and incomes and look at balancing expenses such as rent, food, car insurance and clothes.

“It really opens their eyes to how life is difficult and it’s important to receive a college education,” Cline said.

As the students move up in years, their curriculum grows more advanced, until senior year kids are required to prepare a business model — complete with a product and a preview on expanding the business overseas — on which they will give a 20 to 30-minute presentation. During the second semester, students work part-time at paid internships.

“For a high school kid to walk into an accounting firm and understand what ledgers and debits and credits are is really amazing,” said Cline, who added that a few of her students have continued to work-part time for their internship companies and are looking at full-time jobs when they graduate college.

Such a focused path in high school courses not only gives students an opportunity to function at a higher level, earn college credit and gain scholarships, but also lets them fully explore a subject of interest in order to verify if it is something they want to pursue later in life.

“We’re just really glad to have an opportunity to help these kids in that capacity and give them an opportunity,” Cline said. “It’s so important, especially in today’s economy, to understand not only our business lives but also to understand our personal lives.”

Staff Writer Erin Wiltgen can be reached at 888-3576 or at newsdesk@tvilletimes.com.