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OUR INTERNS
OTM has 26 interns across 14 different schools in the Chicagoland area.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Karis Kelly
President, Fall Semester
Karis Kelly, an IBDP Senior at Taft High School, is the Co-President and in the Supply Chain Department of OTM. She became an OTM intern in Fall 2020. She plans to pursue a career in medicine and plans to major in biochemistry and criminology. She combines her passion for financial literacy and medicine in her articles. Outside of OTM, Karis runs her own organization, Youth Medicine Today, and is the Magazine Editor in Chief at Teen Health 101.
Fathima Shaikh
President, Spring Semester
Fathima Shaikh is an ambitious, hard-working, young author located in the West side of Chicago who started On The Money as a freshman in the spring of 2020. She is currently attending Walter Payton College Prep High school and will be graduating in 2023. She is interested in pursuing further studies in the business field or medical field. The first article Fathima has written incorporates topics such as health and finance.
Vidhi Piparia
Vice President, Fall Semester
Vidhi Piparia is a senior at Walter Payton College Prep. Her interest in economics stems from her curiosity to understand her vastly different elementary and high school experiences due to the structure of funding in the education system. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, exploring the city, and cultural learning.
Vivian Kaleta
Vice President, Spring Semester
Vivian Kaleta is a junior at Walter Payton College Prep and resides in the near North side of Chicago. She joined OTM in Fall 2021 as she is interested in economics and journalism. Outside of OTM, Vivian is a copy-editor for her school's newspaper, participates in MUN, plays the piano and plays volleyball. Vivian is excited to help the spread in financial literacy among young people in Chicago.
Miles Reeves
Secretary
Miles Reeves is a senior at Walter Payton from the Near South Side neighborhood of Chicago. He is an On the Money writing intern interested in reporting on the stock market, cryptocurrency, and personal finance. Miles is on his school’s Economics and Investment Team where he partakes in economic competitions and also helps manage his school’s Student Investment Portfolio. In addition, he enjoys playing, working for the Nordson Green Earth Foundation, and track cycling.
Hailan Yu
Assistant Secretary
Hailan Yu is a junior studying at Walter Payton College Prep reigning from the Near South Side of Chicago. Her academic interests include STEM and economics. She joined OTM with the goal of developing financial literature and knowledge of the business world among students. In the future, she plans to further her studies in college by studying economics and engineering. In addition to writing for OTM, she enjoys playing volleyball.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERNS
Tess Buchsbaum
Marketing
Tess Buchsbaum is a senior at Lane Tech High School. She just started OTM in 2022 in the Entrepreneurship Intern track. She plays competitive ice hockey and hopes to get committed to college. Her other hobbies include reading, drawing, and writing. She is interested in furthering her knowledge of economics and financial inequality during this internship.
Riona Duncan
Riona is a senior at Walter Payton who lives in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood. She discovered OTM through an announcement at her school, and had her article selected to be published in the Spring 2021 OTM writing competition. She especially likes writing about the environment, and wants to be a technical writer someday. Riona’s activities include playing scholastic bowl, serving on the board of the Illinois Junior Classical League, and occasionally writing poetry.
Umar Sheikh
Finance
Umar Sheikh is a high school freshman currently living in Chicago's West Town. He is interested in pursuing a career in computer science and business. Umar joined OTM at the beginning of 2022 after hearing about it through his teachers. He is attending Walter Payton College Prep High School and will graduate in 2025. He is a member of his schools Math, Cross Country, and Science Olympiad team.
Supply Chain
Ethan McHugh
Ethan McHugh is a junior at Northside College Preparatory High School, and he currently lives in the West Part of Chicago. Ethan hopes to major in programming or business, and he became involved in OTM because he was very interested in writing articles related to the business aspect. In his free time, Ethan runs a business with his brother and loves to work on expanding it. He also enjoys learning more about programming, especially the language Lua, and he hopes to eventually create a profitable game or program in the near future.
JOURNALISM INTERNS
Maggie Tsyganova
Maggie Tsyganova is is a senior at Walter Payton College Prep High School in Chicago where she is Co-Captain of the Chess Team and on the school Economics and Investment Team. After writing an article for the OTM 2021 Spring Writing Competition, she joined OTM as an Intern in Fall 2021. Maggie is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Queens United Chess, a student-run organization that works to bridge the gender divide in chess by empowering female high school leaders. She hopes to feed her entrepreneurial spirit by exploring careers in business and finance, and enjoys playing badminton and studying foreign languages in her free time.
2023 MONEY MENTORS
Iliana is a sophomore at Northwestern University studying journalism and international studies. She was born and raised in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood. Iliana serves as the creative director of North by Northwestern magazine during the school year and has stories published in Ms. Magazine, Medill Reports and The Daily Northwestern. In her free time, she loves knitting and taking care of her six pet snails.
Iliana Garner
Mia Bonds
Mia is a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and grew up in Chicago's East Side neighborhood. Mia joined the Economic Awareness Council because she is interested in a career involving environmental economics and consulting. During high school Mia participated in the AP Capstone program where she conducted research in the field of environmental economics, was the secretary of Whitney Young High School’s Youth and Government chapter where she wrote a bill about environmental gentrification, and volunteered with the organizations: Feud for Food, The Chicago Period Club and Best Buddies. In her free time Mia enjoys all kinds of art but especially drawing, painting, ceramics and fashion.
Janel Ray
Janel Ray is a recent graduate and alumni of Illinois College. She currently works for Chicago public schools, where she enjoys being a teacher assistant for the kindergarten class. Janel has worked with OTM for over five years. She enjoys coming back almost every summer. Janel has been a team lead for two summers now where she enjoys assisting and mentoring a group of her own. Janel hopes she can eventually move more into her communication career. She has a interest in public relations, social media management and HR aspects. She enjoys reading and playing the piano on her free time.
Grace Li
Grace Li is a returning intern residing in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood and an economics major at Duke University. Passionate about financial literacy and social impact, she first joined On the Money in the summer of 2021. Additionally, Grace hopes to enter fields related to business, economics, or finance after graduation, and her articles are focused on these areas of interest. In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, roasting coffee, and going out with friends to try out new restaurants in Chicago.
Fathima Shaikh
Fathima Shaikh is a rising freshman at UC Berkeley, passionate about education equality and financial literacy. She joined OTM as a freshman in high school and has led multiple campaigns, increasing online interaction by 73% and in person outreach by 150+ people. At Berkeley, she hopes to major in electrical engineering and computer science to combine her interest with social entrepreneurship with technology.
Celena Ho
Celena Ho is a rising freshman who will be attending UIUC in the fall to pursue a double major in accounting and marketing. She currently also works as a marketing intern and a seasonal tennis instructor. Celena is from the Northside of Chicago, but graduated from Whitney M. Young High School where it was her economics teacher, Ms. Mueller, who actually encouraged her to apply for OTM. Her favorite hobbies include reading books, organizing her Notion account, and going out with friends.
Flavia Michelan
My name is Flavia Michelan and I am a current senior at University of Illinois in Chicago, I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and moved to Chicago a 2 years ago to pursue my University career. I am currently double majoring in Economics and Political Science, with a pre Law track. I heard about OTM/EAC through a professor and can say that it opened doors what once were unimaginable opportunities that are extremely relevant as work experience, such as being able to publish an article on a magazine.
Ria Tharakan
Ria Tharakan, a recent immigrant of India, had always dreamed of studying abroad. So, when the opportunity to study at the University of Illinois Chicago presented itself, she eagerly seized it. Ria embarked on her academic journey, choosing to major in Economics. Her fascination for the subject drew her nearer to the world of OTM which she started in the summer of 2023. She also lays her passion in storytelling and writing and aspires to pen a book highlighting her family's history, culture and traditions.
Kenneth Ruan
Kenneth Ruan is a rising Freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign living in the Brighton Park community. He aspires to major in Accounting & Datascience and is dedicated to serving his community. This will be his first year serving as a OTM Money Mentor.
Danny Chen
Danny is a recent graduate from Whitney M. Young Magnet Highschool. He will be a rising freshmen at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying Business. Through the On the Money program, Danny hopes to gain more experience in the field of business and gain invaluable connections. Danny's future goals are to complete his degree in Accountancy and eventually get his CPA. He hopes to to start at an entry level job as an accountant at one of the Big 4 firms.
Armaan Shah
Armaan Shah, a student at the Harvard University, resides in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. He joined On the Money in February of 2021 as a Monthly Intern to share his passions for entrepreneurship and financial literacy. He previously served as a Money Mentor in Summer 2022. Outside of EAC and OTM, Armaan plays soccer, basketball, and golf and enjoys the outdoors.
Anika Dewjee
Anika Dewjee is a rising sophomore at Northwestern University, where she is majoring in Economics and minoring in Business Institutions and International Studies. She became an On the Money intern in January 2021 to share her passion for entrepreneurship and finance, and currently serves as a team lead for the Money Mentor Summer Internship. At Northwestern, Anika is heavily involved with Northwestern’s entrepreneurial hub by working with startups and entrepreneurship cohort programs. After college, Anika plans to pursue a career in consulting and aims to eventually start her own business.
Vivian Kaleta
Vivian Kaleta is a senior at Walter Payton College Prep and resides in the near North side of Chicago. She joined OTM in Fall 2021 as she is interested in economics and journalism. Outside of OTM, Vivian is a copy-editor for her school's newspaper, an author, and plays the piano along with volleyball. Vivian is excited to help the spread in financial literacy among young people in Chicago.
Rahui Enriquez
Rahui Enriquez is a driven individual with a passion for personal development and community engagement. Born and raised in the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village, he developed a deep appreciation for its diverse culture and tight-knit community. While currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration at Richard J Daley Community College, Rahui has also decided to become an active money mentor for the Economic Awareness Council (EAC) through the One Summer Chicago program. As a money mentor, he provides presentations on financial literacy to empower youth and help them establish banking relationships. Rahui got involved with the EAC to enhance his own financial literacy skills. Rahui actively seeks out opportunities to expand his skill set and broaden his horizons. Alongside his studies and role as a money mentor, he is also involved in raising awareness for social issues for Indigenous communities within America. The addition of his participation in raising awareness for social issues within Indigenous communities showcases his dedication to addressing important societal challenges.
Piotr Fedczuk
Piotr studies journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This fall, he will be a sophomore. Piotr works at his school's newspaper and plans to write for larger newspapers in the future. In his free time, Piotr focuses on creating stories, poems, and artwork. He hopes to pick up skateboarding in the future.
Piotr found out about the EAC from a friend who participated in the OTM program. He got involved because he wanted to teach others about finance and continue to strengthen his writing skills.
Sergio Mendieta
Sergio Mendieta is a rising junior that currently attends Augustana College. Sergio is a part of the OTM team and grew up on the north side of Chicago. As a child Sergio was a part of many swim team and later grew up with an interest for the pool. Later at around the age of 16 he was hired at his old swim club as a swim instructor. Sergio is Interested in Finance and is devoted to sharing financial literacy with in OTM and this great non-for-profit organization.
Karis Kelly
Karis Kelly is a freshman at the University of Rochester studying molecular genetics, epidemiology, and film and media studies. She is from the Mayfair neighborhood and graduated with an IB Diploma from Taft. She got involved in OTM in 2020 with the goal of improving financial literacy for the community around her. She served as President and Vice President and continues to be involved with EAC with the Money Mentor Programme. Karis hopes to keep spreading financial literacy in her communities. After seeing the discrepancies across schools and neighborhoods, she is dedicated to bridge the gap.