Ish Aggarwal

Ish Aggarwal (16), is from the United States. Growing up in Frisco, Texas, Ish saw how a child’s birthplace, language, or family income could unfairly shape their future. Watching immigrant families struggle for economic opportunity and students go without basic educational resources, he decided not to wait for someone else to fix it.

As CEO of the Financial and Investments Organization (FAI), Ish leads financial literacy programming for over 6,000 members across 125+ global chapters, raising a significant amount of money to bring financial education to underserved students who otherwise have none. With co-founders Rayanne Noonari and Nithilan Karthik, he built Project Origin, a free entrepreneurship bootcamp for immigrant and underrepresented students, and helped create Genesis, an AI-powered learning platform extending its reach even further. He also built Textbooks4Tomorrow, a book donation nonprofit powered by over 200 volunteers.

The results speak for themselves: Project Origin reached 113 in-person participants and 2,139 people through Genesis, with participants showing a 52% increase in entrepreneurial knowledge and a 111% jump in entrepreneurial interest. Through financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and access to books, Ish is building the systems he wishes had existed for the families he grew up watching struggle.