HIS GREATEST CURRENCY IS TEACHING OTHERS

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Danny Jang. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Danny Jang wasn’t always great with money. But unlike some, he wanted to do something about that. Quick to spend his allowance on food while hanging out with his friends, Danny realized that he needed a little bit of guidance when it came to financial literacy. When he recognized that it was likely that other young people were dealing with the same issues as him, Danny decided that working together to educate themselves would be the best way to resolve the situation.

What started as a small student-run club has blossomed into Futures Financials, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering individuals of all ages with essential financial literacy skills to foster lifelong financial confidence and independence. The team at FF helps young people learn about budgeting through student-led workshops, school partnerships and community partnerships. While financial education is the basis of FF, it’s also a pathway to guide young people toward a life of confidence and freedom.

Growth is one of Danny’s biggest goals for the organization, but advocating for improving financial literacy on a greater scale is also a key foundation of his mission. FF hopes to encourage public policy that mandates financial education in schools, which is currently not required in all states. By making this a subject in more schools, Danny hopes young people will get the opportunity to find peace in their lives through financial stability.

On top of a rigorous high school career, Danny devotes over 12 hours per week to volunteering with FF. He cites one of his favorite aspects of volunteering as realizing that he can positively affect the lives of someone in just one hour of financial education. When the students leave the classroom, those small moments of connection lead to great rewards. And those rewards have been plentiful: Over 2,000 students across more than 30 schools and 25 libraries have participated in the FF program. Danny’s mission to help others through financial education may have started as a personal problem, but it blossomed into a national movement.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Futures Financials.

When the organization was smaller, I used to do all the teaching. I went to the schools with a group of friends or members of my organization. Now the organization has gotten a lot bigger, so my responsibilities have shifted a lot. I do a lot of coordination of the events. Whenever schools email me and say they want me to come teach, I set everything up. I set up the transportation, the members, all the processes that lead to us getting to a certain location, and provide the workshops or the financial literacy workshops for the day. Another big thing I do is teach the new members in my organization. It’s like passing the torch forward so they can go and teach children.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I had a lot of personal experience that led me to make this organization. I wasn’t financially literate myself. I would spend a lot of money every time I got an allowance. Everything would go into food, clothes and shoes. When I wanted to buy something or go out with friends or people I love the most, I really couldn’t. I felt like it was my fault for not being able to do those things with my friends or family because I spent so much money on irrelevant or useless items. That made me realize other people might be experiencing the same thing as me. I’m trying to fix the problems that other people might have. It was kind of a personal experience, but also a way to help people at the same time.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

Our long-term goal is to expand outside of the statewide level. In the past week, we expanded to the tri-state area. We’ve taught in New York City, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and we’re accumulating more members over time based on this financial literacy movement. My goal is to ultimately expand nationwide, where kids, regardless of socioeconomic status, can have access to our workshops that help them be confident about financial literacy in the future. Another goal is advocacy. Many states lack laws that specifically state that students must take financial literacy in school. We say that we are the reason why financial literacy should be mandated in schools. Our goal is to advocate for a greater push in the education system for financial literacy.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

When I see students, or when I see my members teach financial literacy, and they come up to me, or the younger kids go up to their parents, it’s rewarding. They always talk about what they learned throughout the day, and what made it fun to learn about financial literacy. Financial literacy is very academic, lecture-based teaching. But the way we teach it is on a peer-to-peer basis. We act like older brothers and sisters. The fact that they can go back to their parents or guardians and tell them about how enjoyable learning was is probably the biggest reward I experience.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve learned two different things. The first one is a very personal experience. I’ve learned to become more financially literate. Like I said, I wasn’t financially literate before, but as I began to do more research about how to become more financially literate and how to teach students, I became better at being smarter with my money. The second thing I learned is the idea of leadership. Regardless of who you are, everyone is a leader in their own way. Through my organization, I felt like a leader. I’ve compelled other students to be more confident not only in their financial literacy, but also in other areas. A lot of people in my organization learned how to be leaders who can ultimately impact others in their own lives in a beneficial way, and not just regarding financial literacy.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

Ultimately, it ties you to the values you hold. The values I hold are family, friends, my loved ones and my freedom. And my form of freedom is being financially free. A lot of people in our society aren’t free in terms of finances. So, as a goal, my goal is to become financially free by learning financial literacy. And I think this applies to all people, regardless of what they do. If your values connect with what you truly love, or what your heart is connected to, that ultimately makes you more passionate about seeing changes within your society.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

I think the biggest thing is to just ask. That may sound very cliche, but asking goes a very long way. Even reaching out to someone and asking about volunteer opportunities is probably the biggest thing. The one thing I’ve learned about that is that if you ask someone, they don’t view it as someone being annoying. The biggest thing I always say, in terms of volunteers, is to ask questions. That puts you out there, and that ultimately helps you help other people know more about you. That’s how you get more involved in volunteer opportunities.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I want people to learn that, regardless of whatever job you pursue, helping others will help you even more. For me, I’ve always believed that my calling in life was to teach others, through education or as a leader, as a friend, as a brother or even just as a peer. When I teach people, I believe I become a better person. I think to become a true leader or a person with a genuine character, you have to learn how to lead others. It’s okay to make mistakes as a leader. The best thing is to learn from those experiences.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Danny? Find local volunteer opportunities.