Cents for Teens is a 501(c)(3) non profit dedicated to building financial literacy among teens. Cents for Teens has educated over 1200 teens across 18 states and 51 schools in personal finance through workshops, summer camps, partnerships, online courses and social media campaigns. As a founder, I am involved in developing our proprietary personal finance curriculum, managing our social media presence, conducting outreach, establishing partnerships, running workshops and leading our advocacy efforts. Cents for Teens partners with other organizations to bring our workshops to more teens and advocates for making financial literacy a required part of the high school curriculum by writing to our nation's leaders. Current partnerships include Girl Scouts of Northern California, Pi515, a nonprofit organization in Des Moines, Iowa that teaches STEM and life skills to underserved youth and Sunday Friends, a nonprofit organization in San Jose, CA whose mission is to help underserved families living in RV parks in San Jose obtain the basic necessities to survive and acquire the life skills to thrive. Check out our website: https://www.centsforteens.org/Access Cents for Teens Personal Finance workshop series on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@centsforteensFollow us on Instagram for bite sized personal finance content and to get notified about upcoming workshops: https://www.instagram.com/centsforteens/

As the Associated Student Body Fundraising Commissioner at LAHS, I run fundraisers that allow the ASB to hold events to increase engagement and belonging in the student body at large. I have raised over $1000 by running 4 highly popular fundraisers including merchandise, food and drink sales and turned around budget from red to black.

I was also elected to serve as Class Treasurer for the Junior Class mid year to manage the $60,000 budget for the Class of 2025 in addition to my role as the ASB Fundraising Commissioner.

As the founder of HighLite, I bring together current high school students to learn from incoming college students about their high school and college admissions journey while raising funds for nonprofits that fund education. High school and College admissions can create a lot of stress among students so my hope with HighLite is to create a safe space for students to help each other shine in their own way while making education possible for students around the world.In 2023, I organized and ran a conference which was attended by 344 current high school students. Through this conference, I raised $3185.42 for Jusoor, an international nonprofit I work with that funds educational programs for Syrian youth. These funds provided more than 300 high school students in Lebanon with full tuition, transportation, books and other essentials. The conference ran on Sat, June 17 from 9am - 4pm Pacific Time. For more event details see: https://highlite.eventbrite.com.In 2024, I am running student panels so high school students can learn from and get inspired by college students.

As an Ambassador, I am dedicated to advancing Miss CEO's mission of empowering young women worldwide to become great leaders through world-class leadership education, mentorship, and career exploration opportunities.https://www.missceo.org/ambassador-class

As the President of the BPA Los Altos High School Chapter, I manage and run all club meetings as well as club operations including electing officers, fundraising, preparing for competitions etc.I founded the Business Professionals of America club in my sophomore year. Since LAHS does not have a Business focused Career and Technical Education pathway, I created this club to provide a launchpad for students interested in business like myself to learn about different business careers and participate in business competitions at the national level and to develop a wide variety of business skills useful in the professional world.

As part of the E3 Youth Philanthropy program, I worked with a team to make grants totaling $10,000 to local nonprofits that are making a big impact. My team focused specifically on projects to address housing insecurity which is a cause I am passionate about. My team built a website to clarify RV parking rules and distributed flyers to share this information to families living in RVs in and around Mountain View.

As a staff writer at The Talon, I published 15 articles on varied topics including equity in schools, online privacy, student loans, gun violence, sports and more. All my publications can be accessed here: https://lahstalon.org/staff_name/dia-hemanth/

Studied the economic, financial and policy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wealth inequality using a 122 country dataset under Professor Ceyhun Elgin from the Department of Economics at Columbia University and authored a research paper titled: "Wealth Inequality During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Country Analysis"

During this paid internship, I designed marketing content including case studies, blogs and posts for website and social media to increase brand recognition and engagement among prospective clients and employees and invested the $1800 I earned through this internship responsibly in the low cost diversified index fund: Vanguard Total Market Index Fund (VTI).

As a Committee Leader on Congresswoman Eshoo's Student Advisory Board, I led a committee of 7 to research and advise Congresswoman Anna K Eshoo on K-12 student issues like Title IX in the 16th congressional district.