How that information was communicated was just as important. Rekhi, a finalist for the Spirit of Youth Award in this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, has since launched three student-led projects spanning financial education, simplified economic news and AI support for smaller organisations.
He started Launchpad at 14, leveraging his interests in games and art to teach economics, business and financial literacy to children. Rekhi said the project has held about 105 sessions, reaching 215 students across Hong Kong, India and the United Kingdom.
Instead of relying on textbooks, lessons turn economic concepts into activities. For example, the concept of the “tragedy of the commons”, coined by American ecologist Garrett Hardin to describe how overusing shared resources causes collective ruin, was taught through a game in which children shared a plate of marshmallows using chopsticks.
Through this, students learned how taking too many out of self-interest left fewer shared resources for everyone else. Rekhi said the intention was to make concepts that can appear intimidating more familiar, particularly for children who may not grow up discussing money or investing at home.
“Financial literacy is often thought of as something that maybe privileged people talk about with their parents. That leaves a lot of the public without support,” he said.