An Intern's Perspective 

Hi! I'm Esha, and I am going on my second full month of being a Summer intern with Teens Who Invest.

My start was simple. I started attending sessions with Teens Who Invest, or TWI as I tend to call it for short-form, in Spring 2025 as an 8th grader in middle school. 

I have always been fascinated with money and the wonderful things it can do for us.

But, I realized that we often think of money the same way we think about something that is a given. Like clothes, do we question how clothes are made? No, we buy and wear it. Or like education in school. We complain about studying but we accept that education is required and if we want to get ahead in life we need to do it.

To me it feels like we know money is needed to buy things, and that money can be earned. We oversimplify money.

By sitting in the TWI sessions I realized there are so many things that we don’t know or even think about. Like, did I know we can have essential needs and discretionary needs? Did I know that there are different types of bank accounts? I knew of ‘a’ bank account where my parents put my money. Did I know that there is a type of a bank called a Credit Union? I see a Patelco Credit Union near to where I live, but I had no idea what it meant. 

The team offered me an 8-week intern position, because I showed up to meetings and took an interest in the topics. I am a research intern. Which means I do research on topics, and use that to create slides. I love creating slides and I love research. It is a win-win. But….and here is where things got scary for me. My team told me that I should also present to audiences because we were running short on members for some planned sessions.

But that is a topic for another blog on how I dealt with my fears.

I am closing on my intern period soon and I cannot wonder what is next.

Esha Kumar

July 25, 2025