In the auditorium of the WLSA campus in Shanghai, Sophia Fu stood before students, investors, and educators, and with a firm voice, she kicked off this historic event. "Today is not just a competition - it proves that young people do not need to wait until adulthood to start solving the world's problems."
This event is the first CHSSI National High School Student Social Entrepreneurship Competition and Incubation Camp, held on July 6, 2025. The driving force behind it is the China High School Students' Social Impact Fund (CHSSI) – The first “VC behind non-profit projects” in China, and Asia's first and China's only non-profit educational organization independently managed by high school students, providing them with opportunities for entrepreneurship and investment simulation and practice centered around the theme of social responsibility.
Sophia Fu mentioned, "Young people never lack creativity in solving social problems, but often lack funds, mentorship, and practical experience, making it difficult to turn ideas into action; on the other hand, high school students in Asia also lack a real practice field to work on real investment practices. This stands in stark contrast to Europe and the United States: hundreds of student-managed funds such as Harvard's "Undergraduate Capital Partners Program" have existed for decades, while Asia has long been a void in this field, except for a few pioneers that grew from university campuses in Singapore. With CHSSI, I have created a strong social impact element in addition to the common model and practice of that of US and European universities, built on my own passion, also shared by most high schoolers based on the research of my founding team."
To prepare for “the day”, Sophia has been persistently fundraising on her own for 3 years since grade 9 via countless charity sales and visiting high net worth friends of her parents one by one. The fund kicked off at a size of RMB100,000, which is already very large for high school students, with a clear road map to grow 10x – 30x in the next 5 years.
A grand event filled with roadshows, mentor guidance, and breakthroughs
The event on July 6 marked the official unveiling of CHSSI. After the opening ceremony, eight finalist teams from high schools across mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, the United States, and UK, selected from over a hundred applications, gathered with several guest mentors, including top financial institution executives, legal and education industry experts, and Ivy League alumni, for a memorable day of their entrepreneurship journey.
Subsequently, during the entrepreneur forum session, representatives from various projects held a roundtable discussion, introducing their respective projects and answering a series of questions posed by the host. Afterwards, they also engaged in face-to-face talks with the guests present. The five finalist teams’ representatives who have attended the on-site discussion discussed their experiences and difficulties in creating their social organizations. The spokesperson for the Dianhong Plan revealed, "The biggest surprise? How difficult it is to balance systematic operations and the autonomy of project members. When the project first started, there were only five people, and everyone could freely do things according to their own ideas. As the number of organization members increased, we had to formulate relevant regulations, which may limit the individual ideas of members, because we must have a complete task system." Another project founder joked, "The biggest difficulty we encountered was when everyone denied us at the beginning of our project; we ourselves also found lots of problems."
When asked about the key social values of the project, Student Zhang from the "Yi Shu Plan" said, "Perhaps I would prefer to use 'support' and 'change' to describe our non-traditional volunteer teaching project."
After the forum, the exciting Incubation Camp kicked off with two VC investor mentors initiating practical training for all attendees, dissecting core entrepreneurial skills one by one, ranging from "How to design an attractive project" and "How to write a plan that can impress investors" to "Financial budgeting and cost control." "A good public welfare project should not only be 'meaningful', but also 'sustainable'," emphasized one mentor. After the training session, the eight teams break into respective groups to quickly improve their projects within a short time frame, while using their allocated mentor Q&A sessions to their ultimate benefit.
During the Demo Day pitch session, each team presented their project for 6 minutes and answered questions from the judges for 4 minutes. During this process, Chen Bo, Chairman of Shanghai Linghui Venture Capital, commented, "What you are doing is very rare - even in the United States, few high school students can manage real funds or guide their peers. Seize this opportunity."
All finalist teams were awarded the "National Top 8" title and a certificate of completion for the incubation camp. As of the publication of this article, the Champion, runner-up, and second runner-up have been unveiled, and generous angel funding was awarded to the top 3 teams.
Look into the future.
The event on July 6 marked a milestone, but CHSSI's journey had already begun. Since its establishment in 2024, it has supported four bright social entrepreneurship projects founded by Chinese high school students, including "C&C anti-body shame clothing brand”, “Dian Hong Social Plan” which have educated more than 5000 students across China to reclaim self-awareness and mental health, ReMatter, a O2O market place that recycles used “trash” into designer cultural products, as well as APCSA, a free online software that helps underprivileged high schoolers to prepare their AP Computer Science exam for free. It has also recruited a new student leadership team and investment team, having held two large-scale offline events in Shanghai to mingle and market the organization in the wider community. In the coming year, the CHSSI student investment team will conduct simulated portfolio investment in the secondary market under the guidance of financial analysts (for purely educational purposes) and continue to incubate and support more social impact projects founded by high school students.
"There has long been a tradition of student investment funds in European and American universities, but in Asia, it is groundbreaking to let high school students lead the allocation of funds and make investment decisions. This is not just about money, but also about social impact and youth education accelerated by the “leverage of finance”. By handing over the 'car keys' to young people, CHSSI is teaching them responsibility, critical thinking, and the belief that 'their voice deserves to be heard'." When the event came to an end on July 6, Sophia Fu looked at the young people who were exchanging business cards and discussing cooperation, and said, "This is just the beginning. Just wait and see what we will do next. At the very least, within the next 3 years, CHSSI will be setting up multinational branches to empower high school students and society not only in China but also across the globe."
For more information about CHSSI, please visit the official website at http://www.chssi-fund.cn/ or send an email to contact@chssi-fund.cn.
Media Contact
Company Name: China High School Student Social Impact Fund
Contact Person: Albert Zhang
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Country: China
Website: http://www.chssi-fund.cn/en/