Tyler Deng, Co-Founder
Hi, I’m Tyler, a senior at Horace Mann School in the Bronx, New York.
In school, I love serving as a student leader, representing my grade on the student council, being a competitive tennis player, and pursuing my creative talents as a concert pianist. However, my true goal is to become a financier and usher in a “New Capitalism,” which would substantially expand access to capital for unbanked and underbanked populations.
Working towards the goal of creating a global financial ecosystem more inclusive of the currently underserved, I intern during my school breaks at a non-profit organization that provides a pathway to prosperity for refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, supporting them as they launch and grow their businesses with access to affordable credit and financial education. Similarly, committing towards giving equal access for athletic opportunities, I coach 10-year-olds lacking access to sports in a free weekly community tennis program at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, removing economic, racial and social barriers to success through tennis.
It was with the same belief in equal access that Sasha and I launched Bridge To Business in partnership with the Wharton Club of New York (WCNY), the largest alumni organization of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Bridge To Business taps into the vast alumni network of the Wharton School to offer access to the world’s top business leaders. After a very successful inaugural year, I am incredibly excited that our program is expanding to community-based partners, and I hope it makes a difference for our audience in their pursuit of successful business careers.
Sasha Perskie, Co-Founder
I'm Sasha Perskie. I'm a first-year undergraduate at Wharton, majoring in Economics. I co-founded Bridge To Business with Tyler Deng to give high school students who aspire to careers in business – like us – the chance to learn from and make contacts with some of the top experts in the business world.
We believe in helping to spread education and opportunity to students who share our interests but may not have the means or connections to pursue them. This conviction is also what led me to found and develop another youth education program built around another one of my passions: music. I spend much of my time performing, writing, recording and teaching music, as well as working in the music business; you can learn more about that at sashaperskiemusic.com. In 2022 I launched a music education program called Play It Forward, which enlists trained musicians to pass along the gift of music education to children whose families do not have the means to pay for instruments and/or lessons. Today Play It Forward provides free music education to children across two chapters in New Jersey and a third overseas. Learn more at playitforwardmusic.org.