The Team

Ishaan is the Founder and President of AZ FTRS, a social impact organization dedicated to closing the financial literacy and career awareness gap for first-generation and marginalized students in Arizona. A high school student with a background spanning finance, neuroscience, and technology, Ishaan brings an unusually wide lens to a problem that is deeply personal to him.

As a first-generation student himself, Ishaan understood early that financial knowledge and career clarity were not resources his community had equal access to. What others inherited through family networks and generational wealth, his peers had to figure out on their own or not at all. His drive to act deepened as he looked closer at the data. First-generation students carry more debt, have less career awareness, and are far less likely to enter high-earning fields not because of ability but because of access.

Determined to change that, Ishaan founded AZ FTRS to bring financial literacy and career exploration into the same room. The program connects financial knowledge directly to career pursuit, showing students what their target careers actually pay, how to grow within them financially, and how to make decisions today that build the life they want tomorrow. When a student understands both money and opportunity, nothing can hold them back.

Max is the Vice President and Social Media Coordinator of AZ FTRS. A student at Brophy College Preparatory with a background in videography, software development, and digital communications, Max brings a creative and technical lens to a mission he believes in deeply.

Max has seen firsthand how unevenly distributed financial knowledge and career awareness can be. The students who arrive at adulthood prepared are often the ones who had those conversations at home. For many of their peers, that foundation simply does not exist. Not because of ability, but because no one ever handed them the tools.

That gap is what drives his work at AZ FTRS. Through strategic leadership and digital engagement, Max builds content, grows community, and puts real financial and career knowledge in front of students who deserve access to it. For those drawn to creative fields like videography and photography, he also offers a firsthand perspective on what building a career in media actually looks like.

Mark is the Director of Outreach and Coordinator of School Programming at AZ FTRS. A student at Brophy College Preparatory and a standout on the track and field team, Mark brings a rare combination of discipline, drive, and genuine curiosity to everything he does. With deep interests spanning video editing, medicinal biology, and religious studies, he naturally gravitates toward mentorship, connecting with students through shared passions and showing them what it looks like to pursue multiple interests with focus and intention. Mark understands what it means to be a student with big ambitions and limited roadmaps. The gap between where first-generation and marginalized students start and where they have the potential to go is not a gap in talent. It is a gap in access, guidance, and exposure to what is actually possible. That understanding is what drives his role at AZ FTRS. As Director of Outreach, Mark builds the bridges between the program and the schools and communities it serves, making sure the students who need this most are the ones who find their way into the room. For students drawn to science, medicine, or fields where faith and purpose intersect with career, Mark offers something beyond curriculum. He offers a peer who has walked a similar path and can show them the way forward with both financial clarity and personal purpose.

Kaden is a Volunteer and Treasurer of AZ FTRS as well as a student at Brophy College Preparatory whose energy, humor, and genuine warmth make every session feel like a place students actually want to be. An avid lacrosse player with a passion for premed biology and a growing interest in joining ROTC in college, Kaden brings a rare combination of drive and personality to the program. He is the kind of person who can make a room laugh and then turn around and help a student think seriously about their future in the same breath. Kaden understands what it looks like to chase ambitious goals while still figuring out the financial roadmap that makes them possible, and that personal connection to the mission is exactly what makes him effective in the room. For students drawn to medicine, military service, or science, Kaden offers something beyond his role as treasurer. He offers a peer who is navigating those same questions in real time and can show them what financial clarity looks like when the path ahead is anything but simple.