Mission Statement:
Our mission is to develop human capital through young future leaders by providing the knowledge, skill, and mentorship in financial literacy education, experience, and understanding.
Who We Are
Knowledge is Key Inc., also known as “KiK” is a company that specializes in financial literacy programs catered to elementary to high school age children. We provide workshops, curriculum’s, life skills, and consultation in the field of personal finance, economics, and entrepreneurship, which are aligned with common core standards. We service and partner with an organization such as after-school programs, school systems, churches, communities, families, other non-profits, and corporations. KIK’s programs are kid-friendly, timely, relevant, engaging and utilize empirical learning. KiK’s looks to transition youth into young leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, data scientist and economist. KiK has recently broaden its target audience to include adults.
Research studies show there is a benefit of providing financial literacy for children early in their development. One of the essential benefits is an improved financial decision making. Currently, in and outside of school, children do not learn the basic understanding of financial responsibility. This impedes their financial management growth gaining repetitive financial patterns.
What Motivates Us
Financial literacy is the key to success in planning for the future. Our programs improve children’s behavior toward personal finance and economics. An understanding of these subjects helps children model good financial habits, understand the current economy, better predict unforeseen forces and develop life skills. In 2014, reported by renowned research firm Fonda International, estimated there were 25.6 million teens (13-18 years old) in the United States with a startling $91.1 billion in purchasing power. All youth need to be able to make educated investment and consumption decisions in the present and future.
About Our Founder
Our company was founded by Larry Akinyooye in 2016, KIK was started and concentrated in the DC metropolitan area. His vision was to introduce children to a solid framework in financial literacy. His expertise is in finance, economics, statistics, and project management. Larry’s vision started to take shape while completing his master’s program in Economics at the City University in New York. He noticed that there was a lack of diversity with students that looked like him pursuing the same degree. He was entrenched and excited about the program and did not know why other minority students did not pursue. He also observed the lack of heterogeneity while attaining his MBA finance degree from the Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University. He set out to change this trend by focusing on our youth who are our future leaders. With his degree in finance and career in economics and statistics, he sought to combine his experience and knowledge to start the company.
Our Vision
Our vision is to develop human capital through young future leaders by providing the knowledge, skills, and abilities through financial literacy education, experience, and understanding.
Our vision is also to develop young leader’s social capital through interpersonal, inter-group, and inter-organizational relationships. This social capital includes networking (contacts and ties that relate people to each other and outside groups), norms (rules of behavior and underlying values and assumptions which create mutual expectations so people know how to maintain effective relationships), and trust (the bonding agent that allows networks and norms to actualize).
Lastly, our vision is to help the young future leader develop while reinforcing their psychological capital by focusing on their strengths and fostering confidence, hope, optimism, and resiliency.
Founder and Director: Larry Akinyooye
Our Values
Children are our future
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With all learning, financial literacy is a process that ought to begin early in years to build the framework needed to make solid financial decisions.
Knowledge is key to success in life
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Information attained provides better decision making and becomes reinforced through adulthood.
Financial literacy
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Builds the skills needed to acquire assets that improve economic well-being.
Learn by doing
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Young people modeling good financial habits