What we have been doing.

Invest2Empower featured in the ENGin volunteer newsletter

ENGin, the nonprofit that pairs Ukrainian learners with English-speaking volunteers, featured co-founder Aditya Herekar and Invest2Empower in its volunteer newsletter. The piece covered our free training videos in Ukrainian and English, which together have 10,000+ views.

The piece also covers what started the work: as the sons of immigrant parents, we watched our families struggle with an unfamiliar financial system and fall victim to scams. Aditya has volunteered with ENGin for more than three years and has pledged support back to the programme.

Read the newsletter

July 2026 · Release

2026 edition of the training videos released

We re-recorded both editions of our course for 2026, in Ukrainian and in English, with updated figures, examples and screenshots. If you watched the previous edition, everything still applies. The 2026 version is just more current.

Both remain roughly 30 minutes, free on YouTube, and free to share with a classroom.

May 2026 · Award

Finalist at the Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIA)

Invest2Empower was named a finalist at the 2026 Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIA), selected from 244 submissions across 41 countries. MAIA recognises organisations around the world working to improve financial awareness, education and inclusion.

View on MAIApedia

3 November 2025

New training material and tools added

Our 30-minute training video is now available straight from the home page. The learning hub lets you go at your own pace and test yourself with quizzes. Our budget planner and interest rate calculator help you plan with your own numbers, and you can track your progress as you go.

Open the learning hub

Aditya's TEDx talk on a Ukrainian student published on the official TEDx channel

One weekly ENGin conversation with a Ukrainian student became Invest2Empower. Aditya tells that story on the official TEDx Talks channel.

July 2025 · Release

2025 edition of the training videos released

The 2025 refresh of both training videos went live: clearer explanations in the sections learners told us were hardest, updated rates and prices, and tighter editing throughout after a year of feedback from learners in both languages.

As always, free, self-paced, and no account required to watch.

19 January 2025

Ms. Tracy Tanner joins as mentor and advisor

Tracy Tanner, Founder & CEO of Wealthy Habits, joined Invest2Empower as a mentor and advisor. With 12+ years in strategic planning and programme development, her expertise in nonprofit leadership, partnership cultivation and curriculum development is helping us expand our reach and sharpen what we teach.

Meet our mentors

5 October 2024

Ava Borkar named Director of the New Jersey Chapter

Ava Borkar, a high school junior from New Jersey, joined as Director of our New Jersey chapter. She is passionate about educational opportunity, youth empowerment and community development, and is pursuing her Girl Scout Gold Award teaching children about civic responsibility.

3 September 2024 · Advocacy

Aditya Herekar presents on financial literacy at Congressman Pallone's 2024 Youth Advisory Council

Co-founder Aditya Herekar presented on financial literacy at Congressman Frank Pallone's 2024 Youth Advisory Council. Working with peers on the economy committee, he helped craft a legislative agenda placing financial literacy at its centre, and was one of two members nominated to present it to the Congressman and the full Council.

Congressman Pallone draws on each committee's agenda to shape the initiatives he brings to Congress.

22 June 2024

New leaders in Texas: Maheen Rafique and Raya Ahmed

Maheen Rafique and Raya Ahmed became Co-Directors of the Texas chapter, and Maheen is also our Chief Marketing Officer. Together they lead our outreach in Texas, especially in communities with the least access to financial education.

12 June 2024

Rayan Batada opens the Georgia Chapter

Rayan Batada, a high school senior from Georgia, became Director of our newest chapter. He already volunteers at local cleanups and shelters and does community organising, which fits our focus on minority and underrepresented communities.

31 May 2024

Dr. Jairo Borja joins as mentor and advisor

Dr. Jairo Borja, President of Borja Consulting Group, joined as a mentor and advisor. His work uplifting small business owners and entrepreneurs, and his role at the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, bring us guidance on outreach, partnerships and growth.

22 April 2024 · Award

1st place at the 2024 Kean Business Plan Competition

Invest2Empower took first place in the high school division of the 2024 Kean Business Plan Competition, judged by a panel of founders and industry leaders. The award came with $1,000 in funding, which went directly into expanding our reach and building the training material now available free on this site.

October 2023 · Release

The first training videos go live

Three months after founding the organization, we published the first versions of both courses. They had the same lessons, one in Ukrainian for displaced Ukrainians and one in English for underrepresented communities and immigrants. Two high school students wrote, recorded and edited them, and they were free from day one.

Everything since then, including the learning hub, the calculators and the 2025 and 2026 editions, came from questions people sent us after watching these.

July 2023 · The beginning

Karan Verma and Aditya Herekar cofound Invest2Empower

Two high school freshmen, one in New Jersey and one in Texas, started Invest2Empower with a simple idea: your background or your family’s bank balance should not decide whether you know how to manage money. As sons of immigrant parents, they had watched their own families figure out an unfamiliar financial system with no help, so they set out to build the guide they wished their families had.

Ukraine was part of the work from the start, and not chosen from a list. Co-founder Aditya Herekar had been volunteering with ENGin, meeting weekly with Ukrainian teenagers, and those conversations kept circling back to money: prices that moved every month, savings that lost value, and families making decisions with no one to ask. A generation was finishing school through air raids, and financial education was the first subject to fall off the timetable.

The material that existed was only in English, which is hard for a family learning a new language and a new financial system at the same time. So from the start we planned two versions: the course in Ukrainian, and the same course in English for underrepresented communities and immigrants.