The state of Nevada legally mandates schools to teach some form of financial literacy in grades three through 12, but even so, some students feel like they have holes in their knowledge.
A high school student in Reno decided to start the change he wanted to see, co-founding Incentive.
Incentive is a financial literacy non-profit whose main mission is to arm middle and high schoolers with an understanding of finances, in a fun and easily digestible way.
Sathvik Vadlakunta said it all started for him in middle school.
“I originally took a financial literacy class when I was in seventh grade, and I remember walking away learning absolutely nothing,” said Vadlakunta. “I was a little bit confused, and I wanted to learn more.”
A few years later, Vadlakunta met Matthew Park in an online class. Park lives in Aurora, Illinois, but the two teens came up with the idea for Incentive, launching it in February of this year. In April, Incentive became a certified non-profit.
The resource is a website, created to feel like playing mini-games, that teaches the fundamentals.
“It goes from the basics of financial literacy that talk about where money originally originated from, things like the barter system, all the way to financial psychology, where you're thinking about comparative economics, and you're thinking about these harder terms in simplified terms,” said Vadlakunta.
There are seven active Incentive chapters across the nation that not only share the same goals as Vadlakunta and Park but also created a network of outreach.
Members work with community organizations to share the broader scope of what financial literacy means.
“It quickly became: how can I connect with my community? How can I make the people's lives easier? Or how can I make all of these processes frictionless and make sure that people actually are walking away from my workshops with not just like some random teenager giving them finance tips, but actually information that they're going to use in the future,” said Vadlakunta.
Here at home, Vadlakunta has worked with Safe Embrace, which helps survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, as well as the local Boy Scouts of America chapter.
To access Incentive for free, click here.
