CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Both Jay Sundar and Aditya Acharya are full-time students. They’re juniors at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte. However, over the past year they’ve stepped into a different role.
“Our goal was to provide free, quality financial literacy to students,” said Sundar.
Acharya said the initial conversation to help the community started their freshman year.
“We were in lunch, and we were talking about 'there’s something we must do in order to help out the community' and we were both really interested in finance, the stock market, managing money, budgeting,” he explained.
The pair said they were motivated by personal struggles and even the lack of classes about money and financial literacy in the school system.
“I was really thinking, 'why don’t they teach this in school,'” Acharya said.
Last year, the friends decided to take their lunchroom conversation and start the nonprofit known as Youth Finance USA.
“It really just clicked for me," said Sundar. "It was like 'how I can help my community on one hand and on the other hand utilize my knowledge in finance and putting that together' -- I realized the best way was to help kids, especially middle school and elementary school."
The nonprofit provides equitable financial literacy programs by partnering with local schools, the Boys and Girls Club, the Salvation Army, and other organizations to teach kids in grades 3-8.
“We recently led a summer camp in June of 2023. We had a team of 40-45 students in the summer camp and they learned about the basics of budgeting, saving, and investing,” Acharya said.
However, they are not just trying to make a difference in Charlotte.
“We actually recruited high school students in five to six different states to lead our chapter programs,” Sundar said.
While these conversations are around money, Sundar and Acharya said their efforts come from the heart.
“Anyone can do anything. You can create a positive impact no matter how small or how big it is,” said Acharya.
They say they have an experienced board of directors helping guide Youth Finance USA. They also plan to do another summer camp this year.
Contact Nick Sturdivant at nsturdiva1@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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