A 14-Year-Old Who Built Texas’ Biggest Networking Nonprofit for Kids

Nice News, Aug 11 -  It isn’t much of an overstatement to say getting ahead in life is all about who you know. Professional networking can change the course of a person’s career — and according to 14-year-old Arjun Sharda, it all starts in elementary school.
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The ninth grader is the founder of the Texas-based K-12 networking nonprofit TLEEM, which stands for Technology, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Engineering, and Mathematics. If you’re wondering why kindergarteners need to network, Arjun, who’s been coding since age 7, has an answer.
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“You need networks to change the world,” he tells Nice News, adding: “I think that school overlooks how we teach those skills, social capital, these professional skills, this confidence. A single career and technical education course cannot teach that length of and value of that knowledge.”
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Now the largest nonprofit of its kind in the state, per Arjun, TLEEM began when he was in seventh grade and formed a club with a couple of his tech-loving friends in Leander, Texas. In 2023, he and his family moved to Round Rock, outside Austin, and he started conducting the club virtually. That led to him filing paperwork with the Texas Secretary of State to incorporate the organization, and in November of that year, TLEEM became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more about how the organization has grown.​