01
Week 1 · Begin with evidence
Brief, not lecture
Every Saturday opens with a real artefact: a credit-card statement, a 10-K, a household scenario. You build. Your mentor reviews.
Applications Open
Sat · 9 AM ET
Cohort 1 · Nov 21
Cohort 2 · Feb 13, 2027
Upcoming · May 22 & Aug 21, 2027
Financial Literacy for High Schoolers
Built, Not Lectured
Don’t study finance. Build it.
FinLit is the eight-week Fellowship Lab where high-school students (grades 8–12) ship real financial projects (an investment thesis, credit-fee teardown, or venture pitch) with Harvard student mentors at your side.
Lab project · Capital Minds
Compounding tool · $50/mo, 7%, 40 yrs
Lab project · Capital Minds
Credit-card fee teardown · a real statement
- flagged 7 APR traps,
- 2 minimum-payment traps.
- cited the cardholder agreement,
- page 4.
Mentor sign-off
"Strong stress-test. Re-cite source 3: that's a blog, not BLS."
H
A. Park · Harvard '27
Lab mentor · Capital Minds Fellowship
1 : 20Mentor ratio
8 WeeksBuild · Ship · Get feedback
Harvard-student-ledStudent mentorship & reviews
Real projectsShipped. Reviewed. Published.
The Fellowship Lab
Eight weeks.
One real artefact shipped.
FinLit isn't a lecture series. It's a working lab. Every fellow ships one real financial product (a tool, thesis, teardown, or venture) defended live to a mentor panel in week 8.
· Investment thesis
· Budgeting tool
· Credit-fee teardown
· Venture pitch
· One-page brief
· Scam detector
· Investment thesis
· Budgeting tool
· Credit-fee teardown
· Venture pitch
· One-page brief
· Scam detector
02
Weeks 2–3 · Build the first draft
Investment thesis or budgeting tool
Weekly briefs, reviews & AI-tooled assignments turn an initial idea into a financial product you can test.
03
Weeks 4–5 · Review in the room
Mentor in the room
1:20 ratio, the entire lab. Lead analysts design the briefs; Harvard student mentors sit beside you while you ship.
04
Weeks 6–7 · Stress-test the work
Teardown, pitch, refine
Credit-fee teardown · Venture pitch · One-page brief · Scam detector
08
Week 8 · Live capstone
Ship and defend
Week 8 is a five-minute live pitch. Your artefact, your numbers, your reasons. The AI is in the room, but it can't answer for you.
Join the journey
A short form.
One decision.
Pick your cohort: Saturday, November 21, 2026, Saturday, February 13, 2027, Saturday, May 22, 2027 or Saturday, August 21, 2027. All start at 9 AM ET. One focused track, applications graded on a 60-second video. No GPAs, no SATs, no parents writing it for you.
8live Saturdays
120 mineach session
1 : 20mentor ratio
COHORT 1 · NOV 2026 · COHORT 2 · FEB 2027 · COHORT 3 · MAY 2027 · COHORT 4 · AUG 2027
Eight live Saturdays, a Harvard student mentor in every small group, all lab briefs and reviews, and a defended capstone in week 8.
- ✓ 8 live Saturday labs with a Harvard mentor
- ✓ Weekly briefs, reviews & AI-tooled assignments
- ✓ Capstone project defended live in week 8
- ✓ Finlit Fellow certificate + alumni network
Nov 21Cohort 1 kickoff
Feb 13Cohort 2 kickoff
May 22Cohort 3 kickoff
Aug 21Cohort 4 kickoff
meet the team
Designed by educators.
Run by Harvard students.
Every small group is led by a current Harvard undergraduate or graduate — exclusively from Harvard. They run your live AI labs, hold office hours mid-week, and grade every capstone.
KellyHarvard '27 · Applied Math & Statistics
Junior at Harvard studying Applied Math and Statistics. Experience spans applied AI research, political data science and election forecasting, and full-stack product development. Interested in entrepreneurship and startups.
Harvard '27AM & Stats
AI · DSStartups
TsionSenior · Government
Passionate about education equity and youth mentorship. Has held tutoring and mentoring roles with Harvard Model Congress, the Eritrean and Ethiopian Students Association, and the Cambridge Community Center.
HarvardGovernment
Youthmentorship
Jerelyn FernandezHarvard '25 · Investor Services Analyst, Citi
Graduated cum laude from Harvard College (Psychology, secondary in Economics). HBS SVMP 2025. Former President of Harvard Latinos in Finance & Technology. Prior internships at Citi, Moderna, and Bain & Company.
Harvard '25cum laude
CitiNYC
Week 8 · Capstone
You don't finish with a quiz.
You finish with a defence.
Five-minute live pitch to a mentor panel. Your artefact, your AI Workbook, your numbers. Mentors ask questions in real time. The AI is in the room, but it can't answer for you.
i.
Judgment
Did you improve, edit, or override what AI gave you?
ii.
Rigour
Are your numbers correct, sourced, and stress-tested?
iii.
Clarity
Could a non-expert parent understand the pitch?
iv.
Honesty
Are the limits and risks of your plan stated plainly?
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
From students, parents, and teachers.
FinLit is a live, mentor-led personal finance course for teens and high schoolers, run by Learn with Leaders and taught by Harvard student mentors. Its flagship program, the Capital Minds Fellowship, runs over eight live Saturdays and ends with each student shipping and defending one real finance artefact. You can read a fuller overview of our personal finance course for teens.
FinLit is built for students in grades 8–12. It is one focused track: financial literacy for high schoolers at a serious level, covering budgeting and credit, investing, reading 10-Ks, entrepreneurship, fraud and taxes. Our guide to investing for teens covers what that side of the work involves.
FinLit is fully live and mentor-led, not a self-paced video library. Fellows meet for eight live Saturday sessions of 120 minutes each at 9 AM ET, working in small groups at a 1:20 mentor-to-student ratio. Every session is recorded and shared, so a student who misses a Saturday can catch up on the concepts before the next one.
Sessions are led by Harvard student mentors, who run the small groups, coach students through each week's brief and give feedback on their work. Lead analysts design the briefs and review the final capstones, and the curriculum itself is designed by educators. The 1:20 ratio means fellows work in a live group small enough that mentors know who is speaking, not a lecture hall.
Each fellow ships one real artefact over the eight weeks and defends it live in Week 8 in a five-minute pitch followed by mentor questions. Past examples include budgeting tools, investment theses, credit-card fee teardowns, venture pitches and scam detectors. You can see real student work in the Lab, and the week-by-week breakdown in the curriculum.
Free courses and most school classes are lectures or videos that end in a quiz; FinLit ends in a defence. Fellows work live with Harvard student mentors at a 1:20 ratio, on real briefs, and leave with a finished artefact they can show and explain rather than a certificate of completion. That build-and-defend structure is the core of our personal finance course for teens.
Applications are submitted online through the FinLit application form, which takes a few minutes and asks for the student's details, grade and a short set of questions. Applications are non-binding and reviewed on a rolling basis, and seats in each cohort are limited. Families who want to talk it through first can book a meeting with the team before applying.
Don't study finance.
Build it in the Lab.
One focused track. Eight Saturdays. The first cohort to learn money this way. Read the full curriculum, see who is behind FinLit, or learn more about our personal finance course for teens.