Aaliyah Kissick

My platform is Financial Literacy. The goal of my platform is to raise awareness about the need for financial literacy to key decision-makers in the State of Illinois, form partnerships with financial institutions and local businesses to create financial education content for students aged K-college, serve as a liaison between these stakeholders, and advocate for mandatory financial literacy in all high schools in the state of Illinois. 

I was raised in a small, agriculturally-focused town: Athens, Illinois. Our school was well-funded and intimate, meaning we had a student-teacher ratio of about 20 students per class and a total graduating class of 63 students. Our teachers had the time and resources to dedicate to mentoring us.

I chose to further my education through entrepreneurship with my resale clothing store, AK Boutique, military service, and a college education. My diverse experiences have exposed me to a large variety of people. I learned that not everyone gets the same educational opportunities that I did. Some students have schools with less funding, some students have larger schools that cannot facilitate close connections, and many students have a combination of both factors impacting their ability to financially flourish. 

As a senior at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in ACE Financial Planning (a program that prepares students to become Certified Financial Planners) and a Main Street America small business owner, I have built a strong network in financial services. This fact, combined with my passion for community service, and my strong desire to connect people, makes me the perfect advocate for financial literacy.