DAVID WEN · INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
Independent research on veteran reintegration, financial literacy, and community connection, informed by interviews with 50+ veterans across Canada, the UK, and France.
Community visits
and conversations with veterans.
Employment and the transition from military to civilian life.
How language, culture, and personal circumstances shape financial decisions.
Letters, interviews, and sustained connections with veterans.
I'm David Wen, an independent researcher exploring how veterans rebuild their lives after military service. My work connects questions about employment, financial well-being, language, and belonging with the experiences of the people living them.
What began as Pass the Torch, a community initiative bringing students and veterans together, has grown into this independent research platform. The mission remains personal: listen carefully, preserve stories, and turn understanding into meaningful connection.
Veterans, human behaviour, and investing.
Research papers and competition projects.
Economics & History · 22 pages
Research on rehabilitation, sustainable employment, and life after military service.
Research notes ↓Read the paper ↗Comparative research · 25 pages
A proposed comparative study of Anglophone and Francophone veterans in Canada, exploring language access, culture, and age. Hypotheses are presented as questions for further testing.
Research notes ↓Read the paper ↗How much can maths explain about us?
An essay on rational choice, the Ultimatum Game, and the limits of mathematical models in explaining human behaviour.
🏅 Finalist · Top 10 / 1,500+ entriesExplore the essay ↓Read the full essay ↗Evergreen Asset Management · 2024–25
Our team's investment strategy for a Nigerian client whose goals included giving back. Connecting financial models with the person behind the portfolio.
🏅 Finalist & team leader · Top 10 / 1,800 teamsExplore the project ↓Browse the team report ↓
Interviews with veterans connect the questions in these papers with experiences of life after service.
Research question: To what extent has vocational rehabilitation under the New Veterans Charter improved the economic reintegration of Canadian Armed Forces veterans since 2006?
The paper combines a historical examination of the 2006 policy shift with economic models, published employment and income research, and three anonymized veteran interview accounts. It considers labour-market participation, employment sustainability, and financial security separately.
Retraining can help veterans qualify for civilian work, but a job placement alone does not demonstrate lasting economic independence. Health, working hours, workplace adjustments, and social belonging also shape whether employment can be maintained.
Figures are reported in the supplied paper, drawing on Veterans Affairs Canada and the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman. See the paper's figures 3–4 and bibliography for the original sources.
The paper argues that vocational rehabilitation has made a meaningful but incomplete contribution to reintegration. Education and retraining need continued medical, psychological, and occupational support.
The two-year job-placement comparison does not establish causation or long-term retention. Broader income studies cannot isolate the effect of the 2006 reforms, and medically released veterans' experiences should not be generalized to every veteran.
Research question: Does language and cultural background influence financial literacy and financial decision-making among senior veterans, and does that effect change with age?
The paper connects my personal-finance education work with young people, interviews about veterans' financial histories, and the development of a financial-support application. It explores how language-matched guidance could affect access and confidence.
A mixed-methods approach combines structured interviews, a financial-literacy assessment, and application usage information. The “Big Three” questions assess interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification.
The paper proposes an international comparison involving Canada, France, Belgium, and Morocco, while recognizing that national benefit systems and living costs make direct comparisons difficult.
Financial confidence and tested financial knowledge are different measures. A change in self-reported confidence alone would not demonstrate an improvement in literacy.
This document is a working draft. Its abstract and methodology describe proposed research; later sections include tables described as test data, and its conclusion contains an unfinished placeholder. Those tables are not presented here as confirmed research findings.
The paper discusses self-selected recruitment, small international samples, differences in interview standardization, and difficulty separating age, language, culture, and country effects.
The essay asks how far mathematical modelling can capture the complexity of human behaviour. It starts with rational choice: people choosing the option that maximizes their own utility, given a budget.
Then it asks what happens when fairness, emotion, and our beliefs about other people enter the picture. The Ultimatum Game provides a useful test: someone may reject money if they feel the offer is unfair.
The argument is that models help us isolate patterns and make predictions, while their assumptions limit how much they can capture about social interaction and individual decisions.
Read the 7-page essay ↗Finalist — Marshall Society Essay Competition
October 2025 · Grade 11
Featured in The Dismal Scientist, the Marshall Society’s economics magazine at Cambridge.
A model is more useful when it pays attention to context. That question connects this essay with my work on veterans' financial well-being and culture-informed investing.
Wharton Global High School Investment Competition
September 2024–January 2025 · Grade 10
Our team designed a strategy for Mr. Ayoola, a Nigerian client whose ambitions included supporting his community. We connected his background and priorities with a portfolio designed around his financial goals and risk tolerance.
We presented our portfolio strategy at the University of Pennsylvania finals before Wharton professors and industry professionals.
The connection is personal context: financial support should consider someone's goals, relationships, language, and background. That principle connects this project with my questions about veterans' financial well-being without assuming that every community has the same needs.
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50+ veterans interviewed across
Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.
Conversations with veterans are at the heart of this work: a way to understand individual experiences alongside the policies and systems that shape life after service.
This growing archive brings those conversations into the research. Watch a recording, or get in touch to share your own experience.
Share your story ↗Outreach connections across three provinces.
Hover over a pin, or tap a city to explore.
Photos come from the project archive and illustrate different activities; city assignments have not been confirmed. Finchurst is the named veterans home in the supplied project notes. Toronto is the starting point for six other city connections.
The Pass the Torch initiatives
that started this journey.
01 / LETTERS OF APPRECIATIONMore than 1,000 student letters written and sent to veterans across three provinces, connecting generations through handwritten appreciation.
02 / COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTWeekly free barbecues for veterans at Finchurst Veterans Home, supported by funding from Community Neighbors Canada.
03 / VETERAN STORIESFrom the initiative's first 10 interviews to a broader research journey of 50+ veteran interviews across Canada, the UK, and France.
Student letters, veteran visits, and community activities from the Pass the Torch archive. Select a photo to see it in full.
Share an experience, connect your veterans home,
or explore a research collaboration.