Shifting financial education from individual responsibility to systemic issue
Hans is a student at Bergen County Technical High School from River Edge, New Jersey. He's a founding officer of Futures Financials (18 chapters globally, 10,000+ students taught), executive team member of Project WhyFi (18,000 learners), and co-founder of TickerSphere — an investment platform now used by 7 top U.S. universities.
"I used to think financial health was a personal failing. My grandfather, a farmer in India, kept his cash in a jewelry box under his bed. It seemed irresponsible, but it wasn't his fault. Living his entire life in a rural village without access to banks or credit, he received no institutional support. He died with $127 in savings and a fully paid-off home he built dollar by dollar over 35 years. From his story, I learned financial health is not about knowledge alone, but whether the system allows that knowledge to be used."
It was my second year teaching financial literacy. We had a teach-in at a charter middle school in NYC and I assumed minimal effort would be needed. That illusion cracked quickly. 'What is a budget?' Jake asked with genuine curiosity. After the session, he told me he wanted to work in finance but had never been introduced to financial literacy. These students were not constrained by discipline, but by systems that never gave them a place to stand. Now, I am expanding financial literacy with one goal: no matter age, gender, race, income, geography, everyone should be able to use and learn financial literacy.
One of my favorite movies is The Big Short because it exposes how predatory lending profits from illiteracy. While subprime mortgages are no longer the main vehicle, the same mechanism exists today through high-interest cards, buy-now-pay-later services, and no-credit-checks. These products target people with limited liquidity. Predatory lending undermines financial health by removing margin and making recovery impossible — proving education alone cannot overcome structural exploitation.
As an ambassador, my role would be to shift financial education from an individual responsibility to a systemic issue. I would continue teaching financial literacy while pairing it with policy work. I'm continuing my research with Harvard researcher Dr. Ebanks to evaluate current financial literacy curricula and their practicality, and I plan to work with legislators to help close gaps in financial education across socio-economic groups. This summer, I'm launching a financial literacy fellowship focused on empowering participants to create their own initiatives.
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