When Aaliyah Duah was 17, she realized one of the major differences between an underserved community like Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she grew up, and more affluent ones was early access to information on how to manage money.
In her public schools, she never learned about financial literacy — and had not heard the term — until she started going down a “rabbit hole” to educate herself on investing. She began to believe: To address the wealth gap in a systemic way, she needed to address the information gap. While a sophomore at Virginia State University during the pandemic, she started Financial Revolutionn, creating workshops that teach personal finance to young people in straightforward, relatable, and fun ways.
Now 23, Duah continues to grow her organization, reaching students at more than 30 schools across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. She uses examples like Roblox, sneakers, bacon-egg-and-cheeses, and Apple iPhones to teach about credit cards, interest, and retirement accounts. She’s soon releasing a coloring and activity book called My Financial ABC’s, designed to help kids ages 3–8 learn basic financial terms…