{
  "id": 7557384,
  "title": "Meet the 23-year-old Bed-Stuy native who won a $200,000 David Prize for teaching kids money skills",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/meet-the-23-year-old-bed-stuy-native-who-won-a-200-000-david-prize",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-15T13:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Chalkbeat",
    "slug": "chalkbeat",
    "url": "https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026/09/15/nyc-david-prize-winner-aaliyah-duah-teaches-financial-literacy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When Aaliyah Duah was 17, she noticed a stark contrast between underserved communities like Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and more affluent areas: early exposure to financial education. In her public schools, Duah never learned about personal finance or financial literacy until she started researching it independently. This sparked her belief that addressing the wealth gap requires tackling the information gap. During her sophomore year at Virginia State University during the pandemic, Duah launched Financial Revolutionn, an organization that provides engaging, relatable, and fun financial education workshops for young people. Now 23, she continues to expand her initiative, reaching over 30 schools across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Using relatable examples like Roblox, sneakers, bacon-egg-and-cheese, and Apple iPhones, Duah teaches students about credit cards, interest, and retirement accounts. She is set to release a coloring and activity book called My Financial ABC’s, aimed at helping kids aged 3–8 grasp basic financial terms. On Tuesday, Duah was recognized as one of five recipients of the David Prize, a $200,000 grant awarded to visionaries making a difference in New York City. As schools across the nation increasingly emphasize financial literacy, New York state is now mandating personal finance education for students in grades 5–12 starting this year, and K–4 students next year. Duah emphasizes that financial education can transform communities, breaking the cycle of generational poverty and fostering wealth-building among individuals. She believes that when people learn about financial management from a young age, they avoid poor financial decisions, open accounts early, and set smart financial habits for their children, ultimately improving quality of life and narrowing the wealth gap.",
  "summary": "When Aaliyah Duah was 17, she realized one of the major differences between an underserved community like Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she grew up, and more affluent ones was early access to information on how to manage money. In her public schools, she never learned about financial literacy — and had not heard the term — until she started going down a “rabbit hole” to educate herself on…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}