David Arturo Muñoz-Matta has had a fascination with finance for years.

He moved to the United States with his mom, Mariel Muñoz-Matta, at the age of 6, having no idea where that fascination would eventually take him. Muñoz-Matta would talk about stocks with his science teacher, Mike Aranda, during his years at Brown Middle School. He laughs, noting he was not a stellar student then. He preferred to study people with significant wealth.

“You don’t have to create your own path,” he says. “Just follow what millionaires do.”

Times got tougher for Muñoz-Matta and his mom during the COVID years, he said, noting that his mother’s sole source of income vanished when teaching Zumba at a local fitness center was prohibited during shutdowns. 

One day, Muñoz-Matta’s mom asked him to create a household budget. He turned to YouTube and watched videos about tax audits in beginning to learn about budgeting. David’s budget plan and federal economic impact payments covered their basic necessities during those years. 

Forging Ahead 

He is now a senior in the McAllen ISD’s International Baccalaureate program at Lamar Academy. Muñoz-Matta recalled seeing the Bezos Scholars application posted at Lamar last school year. 

“Something beckoned me to apply,” he said. 

His English teacher, Araceli Guzman, served as his recommender. David received an email notifying him he had made it to the semi-final round of 32 candidates. Muñoz-Matta explained his project in applying for the scholars program. In a Zoom interview, he introduced FLARE – Financial Literacy and Advancement for RGV Equity – as his proposed Bezos Community Change Project. 

“Our mission is to promote financial literacy amongst teenagers, starting in the RGV,” FLARE’s Instagram page reads.

Muñoz-Matta began forming the idea after developing the family budget. Bezos Scholars attend the week-long Aspen Ideas Festival in late June, along with an educator from their schools. It’s a trip Muñoz-Matta would make. He is the McAllen school district’s first-ever Bezos Scholar.

“I’m on this journey with David,” said Aimee Nunez, a counselor at Lamar who made the trip to Aspen, Colo. with her student. 

Making The Trip

Muñoz-Matta and Nunez flew to Aspen, all expenses paid by the Bezos program, to attend the festival. 

He joined his 11 fellow scholars and their educators. While there, the scholars and educators met notable philanthropists and entrepreneurs, including Miguel “Mike” Bezos, Rainn Wilson and Sal Khan. Two events stand out to Muñoz-Matta. The scholars learned the principle of “20 seconds of courage.” Muñoz-Matta applied the principle in dealing with the large crowd at the festival.

“I turned off my mind and raised my hand in a room of at least 500 people to ask the speaker a question,” he said.

He was thrilled that a picture of him posing the question was later posted on the Bezos Scholars Instagram page. Attending the “Meet the Disruptors: Paving a Path to a New Economy” session, Muñoz-Matta says, was a game changer. 

“My ideas crystalized,’’ he said. “I knew I wanted to go into finance but now I want to disrupt, to change systems.”

Muñoz-Matta wants to teach teens how to begin creating generational wealth. He also wants to provide access to financial resources for people unaware of opportunities like investing in the S&P 500 or a 401(k). The festival kicked off a year-long dedication to the Scholars’ projects. Bezos Scholars receive $1,000 in seed funding.

“It’s a legacy project,” Muñoz-Matta says. “We apply annually for the $1,000 grant to keep FLARE going,” Nunez said. 

Over the first semester of this school year, Muñoz-Matta and Nunez met with FLARE members twice weekly and invited speakers to address the group on financial topics. FLARE continues to meet regularly and Muñoz-Matta and Nunez join their Bezos cohort on Zoom every other Saturday. On Feb. 10, the McAllen Scholar and Educator presented the entire FLARE project during the online Bezos Scholar Showcase. 

Their signature public event is scheduled for April 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the McAllen Public Library.

“One FLARE member is a volunteer there,” Nunez says. “She told them about the project and they immediately wanted to get involved.”

Jose Aleman, a vice president for community development officer at Frost Bank, has partnered with FLARE for the event, which will include hands-on activities and speakers. The FLARE event will be both the conclusion and the commencement. Muñoz-Matta graduates in May. He has been accepted to the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, where he will major in finance.

“It’s something I need to do,” he says about earning a degree and planning his disruption. “My community needs it. If I can be in a room of 500 people and ask a question, imagine what I can do!”