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With some friends, Miami Palmetto High School junior Patrick Mizrahi created a non-profit organization called Focus Impact Foundation.
“We started this non-profit to spread awareness about financial literacy,” he says. “We do presentations for teachers and students about the basics of finance and give useful financial tips for real life.”
The group CEO, Oliver Gonzalez, is quite interested in investing while Mizrahi is more into finances. Both have done extensive research into financial literacy. In fact, Mizrahi is writing a research paper on trying to correlate financial literacy levels with the cost of living and the understanding of financial planning.
“The higher the financial literacy, the better knowledge they had of the real cost of living and their own financial planning,” he says. “If students are more aware of finances, they will be more prepared for their life after college.”
He recently taught seventh grade students at Temple Beth Am at the Monday Night High School.
“We love to stress building good financial habits,” he says.
He teaches the 50-30-20 rule which is 50 percent of your salary for expenses and needs, 30 percent should be invested, and 20 percent is disposable income.
They reached out to Beth Am because the seventh-grade students are preparing for their bar or bat mitzvahs. At that time, they will likely receive significant monetary gifts. So, he hopes to help them learn how to become financially responsible.
“My father always made sure financial education was a staple of my childhood,” he says.
“As soon as my bar mitzvah happened, he gave me an account to invest. Other people don’t have the same opportunities I did, so I wanted to do my part in helping out.”
When they initially started the organization in January 2024, their focus was on fundraising. Then in the latter part of 2024 they started the presentations.
“We do tips on social media and our website Focusimpact.org,” he says. “We post about upcoming presentations.”
They have about 100 followers on Instagram already.
He’s also considering the idea of going to Pinecrest Gardens and renting a room to host a seminar about financial literacy and investment.
Their early fundraising efforts brought in about $1,000 but they plan to do more direct fundraising and events.
The idea is to invest in the stock market in sustainable businesses and then invest the profits into charitable organizations.
They also don’t focus solely on teaching children.
“We do educate the teachers,” he says. “We went down to Florida City to Kingwood Montessori.”
At Palmetto, Mizrahi is the Philanthropy chair for the Jewish Student Union. He’s a member of PAWS, the National Honor Society and the National Business Honor Society/Finance Club.
Outside of school, he’s in the Beth Am Social Justice Teen Fellowship. He went to Guatemala this year to help build a school out of sustainable materials.
For his Confirmation last year, he and other Beth Am students went to Washington D.C. to lobby the Senate.
“It was not a traditional Confirmation,” he says. “It’s more like learning how the Torah relates to real world issues.”
He lobbied on behalf of the Dreamers for the enactment of the Dreamers Bill.
“My family was Brazilian, and my parents were immigrants,” he says.
He’s a board member of BAFTY, a Jewish Youth group at Beth Am.
“As a board member, I am the vice president for membership,” he says. “I look at why are students not coming, why they are coming, how can I expand it.”
He’s also involved in the Youth Engagement in Religious School.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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