About

About Saksham

OUR MISSION

Saksham is a teen created and led nonprofit organization that aims to help youth from all socioeconomic backgrounds become financially and socially Capable and Competent!

"Saksham" (origin Sanskrit language) means one who is Capable and Competent and this is what we strive to achieve for teens and youth by providing financial and business tools skills literacy!

HOW IT STARTED

Saksham was started and founded by Akshat Athale, a rising high school junior residing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex during the summer of 2022. It is an initiative to help the underserved youth population understand the importance of financial literacy and business tools literacy which is seldom considered as a focus area in the current system. We decided we wanted to make a difference.

Over 150,000 children in the DFW metroplex are considered to be living in poverty. According to PBS, poverty follows children into adulthood without the proper education, therefore perpetuating the issue. We strive to break the cycle of poverty by bridging the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged by teaching students’ financial literacy skills that will help them gain long-term independence and prosperity.

At Saksham, we felt it was crucial to make sure that teens gain the necessary skills in order to become financially literate. Financial illiteracy leads to unprepared adults, who struggle to be financially stable and eventually stumble back into poverty. In order to prevent this, we educate the underserved youth through our free courses. Along with courses, we offer live sessions in schools about the many aspects of financial literacy ranging from how to create a bank account to investing for the future.

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Akshat Athale
Founder & CEO

Zahary Sanders
COO

OUR TEAM

Sr. Director
Aniket Joshi

Director
Jackson Chen

Director
Owee Padalikar

Director
Will Stevens

Sr. Director
Anya Thakkar

Sr. Director
Yashica Nabar

Director
Rujuta Padalikar

Director
Ethan Henderson

Sr. Director
Mrinmayee Jana

Director
Neel Batra

Director
Kirtana K

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Trishia Wynkoop

AVP in Default Claims at Mr. Cooper, she handles operations, production and strategic initiatives. Trishia is passionate about giving back to community. She is heavily involved in dog rescue in the state of Texas through Russell Rescue, and various other non-profit organizations.

Stephen Helwig

Technologist, YouTuber, and lover of sports. He currently works at Microsoft as a Director of Business Strategy in their Data cloud business and runs a tech focused YouTube channel in his limited spare time.

Raj Menon

Experienced Business Leader with established credentials in Sales, Advisory, Marketing and Operations. Skilled in Client Advisory, Digital Transformations, Service Delivery, Strategic and Hands on Program Governance.

Ryan Sanders

Veteran journalist, columnist, communicator, and ordained minister. He serves as Commentary Editor at The Dallas Morning News. His writing has won awards in community journalism, public relations, and fiction.

Bernard Smith Jr.

Tech Intrapreneur, investor, philanthropist, works at Microsoft as Cloud Solution Architect in Cybersecurity, is President for Blacks At Microsoft Dallas, co-founder of Next Step Initiative helping champion people to reach beyond the constraints they know and embrace self-development.