Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) In partnership with HPAIR
Applications Open Sat · 9 AM ET
Cohort 1 · Aug 29 Cohort 2 · Nov 7 Cohort 3 · Feb 13, 2027

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, a credit-fee teardown, a venture pitch — with Harvard student mentors at your side.

APPLY NOW About the Fellowship
Lab project · Strategist
Compounding tool · $50/mo, 7%, 40 yrs
Shipped by Maya, gr 10 v3 on GitHub
Lab project · Strategist
Credit-card fee teardown · a real statement
  1. flagged 7 APR traps,
  2. 2 minimum-payment traps.
  3. cited the cardholder agreement,
  4. page 4.
Published as a parent guide 1.2k reads
Mentor sign-off
"Strong stress-test. Re-cite source 3 — that's a blog, not BLS."
H
A. Park · Harvard '27
Lab mentor · Strategist track
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, a thesis, a teardown, a 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
COHORT 1 · AUG 2026 · COHORT 2 · NOV 2026 · COHORT 3 · FEB 2027
$1,200$999

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
8live Saturdays
120 mineach session
1 : 20mentor ratio
/01
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.

/02
Mentor in the room

1:20 ratio, the entire lab. Lead analysts design the briefs; Harvard student mentors sit beside you while you ship.

/03
Ship and defend

Week 8 is a five-minute live pitch. Your artefact, your numbers, your reasons. The AI is in the room — it can't answer for you.

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?
New · Competition

The Wolves of Wall Street Challenge

A 12-week global stock market competition for grades 8–12. Six live sessions with Harvard student mentors, MarketWatch simulation, and a live pitch to a judging panel.

Jul 25 kickoff 12 weeks $1,000 in prizes
See the Competition
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 5–12, split into two tracks so the work matches the age group. The Explorer track (grades 5–8) covers first-principles money, budgeting and compounding. The Strategist track (grades 9–12) is financial literacy for high schoolers at a serious level: investing, reading 10-Ks, entrepreneurship, fraud and taxes.
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.

APPLY NOW See the Lab