About Me

About: My name is Aaron Chang, and I’m from Diamond Bar, California. With an interest in quantitative economics, business disciplines, and human behavior, I explore valuable theoretical insights and solutions for myself, as well as younger and same-age peers, on personal finance and economic models for their game design or shop projects. My latest project involved leading the game economics designs for the video game projects of my peer group in Irvine.

Background: I will be graduating from Troy High School in Fullerton, California. I’ve always been curious about how people make decisions, why they spend, save, or take risks. My interest in economics began when I started selling handmade rubber band bracelets and charms, and through running my Depop shop, I learned how products, prices, timing, and popularity shape people’s values and decisions. I wanted to use what I learned to help others understand these same ideas, which led me to creating a youth financial literacy program that teaches saving and budgeting through real-world scenarios. I later applied economic principles to game economic model design programs, to provide financial education for my peers, and a framework and useful methods to improve their self-designed products to succeed in attracting user’s consumption in the real world.

Approach: I analyze how people think and make choices, studying the factors that shape their decisions and behaviors. Economics, to me, is about understanding people, creativity, and the systems that influence everyday life. I use this perspective to design solutions that help students and consumers think differently about money and decision-making, observing how small changes can create meaningful outcomes. Developing my financial literacy curriculum, I studied how middle school students engaged with money in their daily lives, then created lessons that made those ideas simple and relevant to their experiences. Across everything I do, curiosity and care for how ideas work in real life drive me. I enjoy connecting patterns between people and systems, then turning that understanding into projects others can learn from and build upon.

Motivation: I’m motivated by the idea of using economics to understand the world and create meaningful change. Managing my stock simulator portfolio taught me how markets reflect people’s decisions and how trends reveal what drives them.  I want to keep studying economics in an environment that encourages curiosity and hands-on learning, surrounded by mentors who show how ideas become action. My goal is to grow into someone who can take that knowledge and use it to help others, whether that means guiding clients, improving systems within a company, or building new projects that bring these economic ideas to life. Economics is my foundation, and I’m excited to keep building on it to understand people and shape meaningful change.