The young and the invested: UWCSEA East’s Investment Society explores big ideas and builds real-world confidence

26 August 2025
By UWCSEA Communications team

Most people think subjects like business, economics, or finance are all about money. The students behind East Campus’ Investment Society see it differently. For them, it’s about ethical decision-making, shared responsibility, and using financial literacy as a force for positive change. With the guidance of Chet Khatu, Teacher of High School Economics, they come together to explore what it really means to invest, not just in markets, but in ideas, people, and communities.

Lifting others up

The society engages Middle School students, introducing them to key concepts in personal finance and economics in preparation for more advanced learning in High School. In parallel, the students organise voluntary financial wellbeing forums for staff. These sessions invite staff to share experiences and explore topics such as ethical investing, retirement planning, and personal finance, helping build financial awareness and wellbeing across our wider community. While these sessions do not offer financial advice, they’re informal, community-led conversations that create space for learning and reflection.

The group’s popularity has grown steadily. With access to shared presentation spaces, including large screens and sound systems, student members have honed their public speaking and facilitation skills while also expanding their reach across different areas of the school. School leaders and even a few parents have occasionally joined the sessions—sometimes by invitation, sometimes simply out of curiosity.

Grade 11 student Ashir shared his experience of joining the society in Grade 9: “I decided to try something new to push myself out of my comfort zone, so I joined the Investment Society. Initially, I was a bit sceptical about how much I would enjoy it because I had no experience with the economics of finance before. Yet, as I attended more sessions and learned about the interconnected world of finance, I became fascinated with it. The society became more than just a place of learning, but a space where I could discuss events and ideas with my peers and share my perspectives and things I found interesting. Looking back, this was a vital experience in my life as it allowed me not only to increase my confidence and presentation skills but also to learn from casual conversations with friends.”

Learning that feels real and relevant

A focus group within the society, UWC Investors, involves a weekly commitment to meet online, collaborating with the UWC Endowment Fund team in London as well as other professionals to learn how real-world investment strategies seek to fund UWC scholarships in perpetuity. Through this ongoing partnership, students understand how long-term investing and financial literacy can drive global equity, expand access to education, and turn mission-driven learning into meaningful action. 

Meanwhile, the Dragons Investors activity group is all about collaboration; teaming up with other students, running sessions, and diving into everything from finance careers and sometimes, preparing for competitions such as the KWHS Investment Competition, a global, team-based challenge supported by the Wharton School, which they’ll once again join next year. The challenge goes beyond ‘winning big,’ focusing instead on exploring how money can be a tool to inspire meaningful change on a personal level. Every session is hands-on, with team members sharing ideas and perspectives, learning from each other and collaborating on ways to explore finance.

Since early 2024, student members have also spent Friday afternoons in conversation with investment professionals to learn about ethical investing and long-term business analysis. For the second year in a row, they took part in the second UWCEM Global Stock Pitch Competition, open to their peers across the entire UWC network. With 12 UWC campuses participating, the UWCSEA East team performed strongly, giving them the chance to connect and share insights from 20 online sessions, presenting ideas, building confidence, and stepping into a field that often feels out of reach for most High School students. 

Building on this momentum, the society has connected with a range of field experts so far, across green technology, venture capital, private equity, and infrastructure investing, and engaged with industry leaders from Antler VC, Overlook, and Greenback Technologies. What has stayed with them most are the insights these professionals shared about investing, not just as a skill, but as a habit or even a career path.