About Shreyas
Shreyas Pokharna is the founder and CEO of MoneyWiseYouth. He is currently a junior attending Lexington High School. Shreyas is a passionate advocate for youth empowerment and financial literacy, committed to equipping the next generation with the skills and confidence to navigate today’s complex economic landscape. A dedicated learner and educator, Shreyas combines creativity, strategic thinking, and hands-on experience to design programs that make financial education engaging, accessible, and impactful. Shreyas is co-President of the Personal Finance Club at his high school, where him and his team were awarded first place at the state level competition and qualified to the National Personal Finance contest, where they competed on the national stage and received media attention for their efforts. Outside of personal finance, Shreyas is involved with his high school's debate team, is an award-winning guitarist and composer, and enjoys playing spikeball.
How MoneyWiseYouth Was Born
MoneyWiseYouth started with one realization from founder Shreyas Pokharna: if he and his friends were already making financial decisions, from opening bank accounts, using payment apps, thinking about college costs, then they needed the skills to do it wisely. Yet, those skills weren’t being taught in school. Shreyas began sharing what he learned about budgeting, saving, credit, and investing with classmates in simple, relatable ways. What began as informal tips between friends quickly grew into workshops, interactive activities, and a vision for something bigger: a space where young people globally could learn from each other, ask questions without judgment, and build habits that would set them up for life.MoneyWiseYouth was born from this belief: that financial empowerment is most powerful when it’s by youth, for youth. Today, it works to ensure that no young person enters adulthood without the knowledge, confidence, and tools to unlock their financial future.