How One Teen Is Helping Peers Learning to Invest with Purpose

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Alice Zhou. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Alice Zhou, 16, wasn’t even a teenager when the world went into the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. For many, it was a time of rest and reflection. For Alice, it was eye-opening. Having always been a numbers kid, she was fascinated as stocks dipped and rallied during the GameStop saga, discovering a passion for investing. That, in turn, led her to create Finclusion, a 501(c)(3) that offers fellowships and online classes on investing with an emphasis on social impact and responsibility.

Armed with a thoughtful investing approach, she gradually built up a team of 32 students from across the US and abroad as well as four financial experts on the board. Though primarily funded through grants—$15,000 so far has funded 150 fellowships—they hold occasional local fundraisers.

Alice also discovered a talent for making artisan bread during that period. Breaducate was born from the realization that she could sell loaves to fund Finclusion and her work as a tutor and principal’s assistant at the Salvation Army Oakland Chinatown Corps Tutoring Program. After all, there’s only so much a family of four—five, including her German Shepard, Cookie—can eat.

What inspires you to volunteer?

What our community is, is solely thanks to the efforts of others. I’ve really seen how important service is. In a sense, it’s an obligation to leverage my skills and knowledge to get involved in my community.

What led to the creation of Finclusion, and what is your volunteer role within it?

During the pandemic, when the stock market crashed, I saw a lot of people investing. That was when I started investing myself. Many of those people were youth or new retail investors on social media promoting these stocks like GameStop. It was more like gambling. There were a lot of risks around blindly investing in companies that don’t necessarily have a mission.

Finance has the power to drive social change based on where you allocate your money. I want my peers to understand the importance of investing in socially responsible companies. I want to help them understand the fundamentals of evaluating those companies and leveraging finance to improve their financial circumstances.

I serve as president of Finclusion. On a day-to-day basis, beyond managing communication, we’re constantly developing programs with more interactive components like a stock market simulator. We fundraise and build partnerships with Title I high schools and national organizations to promote our fellowships and online courses.

Our fellowship is our core, 8-week program through which fellows learn the fundamentals of evaluating a company in order to invest. We’ve also created four free online courses with a social finance approach. They take you from no knowledge to the basics in investment strategies and portfolio management. We include a lot of case studies about companies that are already driving social change along with quizzes and interactive components. I also coordinate with team members on our stock pitching competition and secure sponsorships.

What is something that people often misunderstand about impact investing?

Many people don’t believe it’s actually driving change. They see companies focusing on meeting those standards as a way to improve their reputation rather than making serious change. But even if they’re just trying to improve their reputation, they’re still setting higher standards.

Finance is involved in almost every aspect of what we do every day. If all companies are held to the standard of having socially responsible missions because investors are demanding it before allocating funds, that becomes the new standard for companies everywhere.

Tell us about the inspiration behind your work with Breaducate and the Salvation Army Oakland Chinatown Corps Tutoring Program. What are your volunteer roles?

I started making artisan bread like everyone else, and it reached a point where I had so many loaves that I shared them with family and friends as gifts. Then I recognized the potential to help the community. I bought 50- to 100-pound bags of flour and started making more to use as a fundraiser. It became a small business from my kitchen. I’ve sold 320+ loaves and generated $2,800 in revenue. I’ve also hosted two bread-making events at my local community center, each with 20+ learners.

I heard about the Salvation Army opportunity through social media or a friend. Initially, I went through their leadership program and became a tutor for underserved students. I love teaching and wanted to get more involved. Eventually, I was promoted to the principal’s assistant role where I now help with outreach, student registration, tutor hiring and more.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

Communication. Picking up on small details and figuring out how I can use those to support our fellows, students and team members has been huge. Within my day-to-day at Finclusion, I’m constantly reaching out to people.

I’ve also learned about grant writing through my work with our fundraiser team. In the early days, we struggled and had to step back to figure out how we could improve our applications and programs. Most grants we’re applying to are for youth projects and involve less formal grant writing. Many offer feedback when you get rejected, which helps.

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

Everyone has a voice and knowledge. As a youth, speaking up for what is needed is especially important. Speaking out inspires others. It’s a ripple effect.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I want them to see it as an inspiration to go and start something to get involved in their community. It doesn’t have to be big, but if it is, I want them to know that when I started Finclusion and Breaducate, I had little to no experience. Part of being successful is having missteps and failures throughout the process. My experience growing Finclusion has always been a learning journey. They should be fearless and just go for it.

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