ProfitQuest

At ProfitQuest, we’re tackling the global financial literacy gap by equipping students and adults with the tools they need to take control of their money and future.

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Inspiration

ProfitQuest was inspired by a question. In over 50% of schools in the United States, financial literacy classes are not required, and in the remaining 50%, it's not communicated in a well-structured format. How are students expected to pursue the careers of their dreams without knowing how to pay for each step? This is the question four high school juniors asked themselves a year ago, and over time, the answer flourished into ProfitQuest. The desire to understand more about finance, then to make sure our generation and those following us understood finance, provided the mortar upon which the bricks of ProfitQuest were laid.

What it does

ProfitQuest is a student-built web app that empowers middle and high schoolers to build financial literacy through an interactive and structured learning platform. The app features five key units: the importance of financial literacy, employment and income, credit and debt, insurance and risk, and investing. Each unit includes explanatory videos, visual slides, study materials, and a quiz to help users retain and apply what they have learned. The investing unit introduces students to stock market fundamentals, including stocks, bonds, index funds, and certified resources like the S&P 500. Each lesson concludes with a short quiz to reinforce learning. The platform addresses the financial education gap, especially in states where such instruction is not required, by giving students the tools they need to navigate personal finance confidently and effectively.

How we built it

We developed ProfitQuest using Django for the backend, PostgreSQL for the database, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend. Our team focused on creating a clean and user-friendly interface that makes it easy for students to move between lessons, videos, and quizzes. We implemented a custom scoring and leaderboard system that tracks student progress and motivates learning. To keep everything organized, we used GitHub for version control and met regularly to discuss progress and fix issues together. We wrote the content ourselves based on real financial literacy resources and structured the curriculum to mirror what we wish we had been taught in school. Feedback from beta testers helped us fine-tune the app experience and ensure the platform was both educational and enjoyable to use.

Challenges we ran into

ProfitQuest was an invaluable learning experience for each of us individually, since we faced a number of unforeseen challenges. It was our first time deploying and hosting a website with a complete backend, and we learned how complicated it was to design the frontend and backend to interact perfectly, especially implementing features such as our leaderboard and scoring system. Developing educational content that was both accurate and engaging for middle and high school students required numerous hours of research and meticulous revision to ensure it was suitable for their age group and comprehensible. In addition to the technological and content-based setbacks, working together as a team with school and extracurriculars took our time management and communication skills to the next level. We experienced setbacks with version control through GitHub, suffered through debugging unexpected user mistakes, and rewrote our UI time and time again in light of what our beta testers told us. Each challenge we experienced imparted something new, from generating cleaner code to working together more effectively, and, together, enabled us to create a better and more refined product.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our proudest achievements was taking first prize at our district’s Congressional App Challenge, which validated the potential and influence of ProfitQuest as a resource for closing the national financial literacy gap. This recognition confirmed the value of our mission and provided us with the encouragement we needed to continue enhancing the platform. We are also proud of our technical achievements—creating a working web application from the ground up with Django, PostgreSQL, and bespoke frontend styling. We crafted an intuitive user experience, an interactive quiz and scoring engine, and authored each piece of curriculum by hand. In addition to the technical aspect, we managed effectively as a team of high school students with no professional experience to undertake an extensive project and gather informative feedback from genuine users. Witnessing students learn with our platform and relate how it helped them improve their understanding of personal finances is the most fulfilling achievement yet.

What we learned

Through building ProfitQuest, we learned how to manage a full product cycle from concept to deployment. We improved our skills in web development, database management, UI design, and debugging. We also learned how to collaborate effectively, take feedback seriously, and solve problems under pressure. More importantly, we gained a deeper understanding of the value of financial literacy and how important it is to create tools that are accessible, inclusive, and tailored to real student needs. This project taught us that when we combine technical skills with a mission, we can build something that truly makes a difference.

What's next for ProfitQuest

In the next version of ProfitQuest, we plan to add more interactive tools to improve the learning experience. We are working on a stock market simulator that allows students to trade in a risk-free environment and compete with peers. We are building a budgeting simulator where students can practice managing monthly expenses and savings. We also plan to create a debt management simulator that helps students understand loans, credit scores, and interest rates. Another improvement we are working on is an AI chatbot called Profit Pal that will answer student questions and recommend personalized content. We also want to create a teacher dashboard that helps schools monitor student progress and customize lessons. Finally, we are exploring more personalized pathways within the app, so students can choose exactly what they want to learn and receive video lessons, quizzes, and guides tailored to their interests. Our goal is to make ProfitQuest a powerful and flexible tool for students, educators, and communities everywhere.

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