New year, new growth
By Kathleen Xie
New year, new growth! Since the beginning of 2023, our organization has expanded in multiple aspects.
VIDEOS
On our youtube channel @flytotheworldyouth, we’ve uploaded more short videos to educate the youth in an engaging way. Did you know that some companies resist inflation not by raising their prices but by decreasing the amount of their product? Kathleen Xie made a video explaining this concept of shrinkflation through a friendly conversation. Along with these short videos, we’ve also uploaded longer videos providing a more in-depth coverage of topics such as budgeting/saving and credit management. Reina Chu in Taiwan used Roblox to make an animated video on budgeting and spending with the red envelopes that grandparents give during Lunar New Year. Abigail Tsa and Alice Lei in Taiwan made several videos on credit management and budgeting and saving with Canva applications. Abigail also designed our first Monopoly game for children to learn about different jobs, types of income, and life choices. In the U.K., Ethan Lo and Matthew Nakhle created youtube videos to teach budgeting, saving, banking, and credit management.
On our Instagram page @flytotheworldyouth, our social media director Joelliane Iyasale started the new year off by suggesting New Year’s financial resolutions. For every week in January, we proposed a new financial goal idea for inspiration. For example, you could start a spending diary to track your purchases or start building your credit credit score to benefit your future. It’s never too early or too late to learn how to live a financially-smart life.
CLASSES
We’ve added on to our collection of financial topics with two new and exciting ones: cybersecurity and entrepreneurship. In our modern digital world, fraud and hacking instances are a common occurrence. It’s important to know how to detect them and be safe online. Also in our modern world, millions of startups are launched every year, accelerating economic growth. Anyone can be an entrepreneur. We teach you how. Recently, we’ve taught classes on both these topics.
Additionally, our Indian chapter director, Vanshika Kumar, shared how she repurposed plastic bags into a unique seat cushion. Saving resources is incredibly important yet often overlooked in budgeting. We incorporate sustainability concepts into our financial literacy program in hopes that we will be able to raise awareness for everyone in the global community to be mindful of the resources around them.
The Taiwan chapter launched two in-person classes by partnering with Shin Kong Life Foundation, reaching a total of 76 students. Abigale Tsai, Benjamin Lin, Rosie Lu, Chris Wu, Austin Chen, Emily Kuo, Reina Chu, and Charlene Chiu taught topics ranging from budgeting and saving to credit management to investing.
Our U.S. East Bay chapter will teach our first in-person class in March with the Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement.
NEW CHAPTERS AND TEAM MEMBERS
We welcome Habiba Addum (fluent in French, English and Arabic) from Chad to lead our first Africa chapter. She will focus on teen pregnancy issues and teach entrepreneurship and saving resources to inspire young girls to become more financially independent. Adam Musa Ali (fluent in French and English), who is also from Chad, will contribute through designing apps and games for our students. He will also teach local students coding and programming as part of our entrepreneurship classes. Viridiana Ramirez (fluent in Spanish), who is from Oakland, California, will help us teach students in an after school program at the Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement together with our co-founders Wilson Tao and Jack Mackey-Williams. George Balan also joined us from Oakland and will contribute to our social media and teaching.
Advisory Board:
We are very thrilled to have two advisory board members joining us: Aoutef Kehlloqi, an Obama Foundation leader, social entrepreneur and expert in the development of sustainable and inclusive territorial development in Morocco and France, and Dr. Maimonatou Mar, the co-founder and COO of Gribouilli, the first vocational organization to support and empower women working as nannies in France. With their advice, we strive to carefully craft our classes to support global youth experiencing different challenges through localized financial literacy education.
As we continue to expand, we welcome passionate youth around the globe to join our efforts in reaching out to a larger community and make a difference!
