Omkar Upadhye of Ravenwood High School
How one young man helped more than 1,000 students gain financial literacy BY AMANDA HAGGARD
W
hen young people think about investing, 17-year-old Omkar Upadhye doesn’t want them to think of The Wolf of Wall Street. “What I like to focus on is building wealth for common people,” Upadhye says. “Normal people need to get into investing because it’s a way to build wealth. If you’re not making money off of your own money, you’re losing money.” Upadhye, a senior at Ravenwood High School, first became interested in investing in middle school. He learned quickly that there weren’t many resources around for young kids trying to increase their knowledge around finances. He was doing research for his AP Research class at Ravenwood when he found that Tennesseeans had a 17 percent lower financial literacy score than the national average. He decided that he would use his knowledge to teach his peers about financial health. Through a club at the school and clubs at the Brentwood Public Library and Nashville Public Library, Upadhye has shown around 1,150 students how best to keep and grow the money they earn. In these clubs, students engage in hands-on paper trading competitions, financial literacy lessons and learn from other business professionals.
MATT MASTERS
