Fidelity announces $250 million Invest in My Education program for up to 50,000 minority students

Fidelity Investments will commit $250 million to a new education initiative to support up to 50,000 underserved minority students with scholarships and mentorship programs over the next five years.

the Invest in My Education The program, announced Tuesday, plans to increase graduation rates and students’ ability to complete their education debt-free.

Pamela Everhart, Fidelity’s head of Regional Public Affairs and Community Relations, said the program is part of the company’s plans to direct more resources to some minority communities.

“This is a strategic focus to reduce some of the systemic and complex barriers that historically disadvantaged students have faced,” Everhart said. “We believe that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, should have an opportunity to access higher education and economic mobility and then begin to build a path toward generational wealth. .”

Fidelity research found that 21% of Black students and 32% of Latinx students graduate from college within four years, compared to 45% of white students. The company also found that, on average, Black and Latinx students took on $25,000 more in student debt than their white peers. To address these inequities, Fidelity partners with UNCF, the largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support to Black students, and other nonprofits.

Michael Lomax, UNCF’s president and CEO, said the complexity of support in Fidelity’s Invest in My Education program helps students succeed. However, he said the most exciting part of the program is that it targets students who don’t necessarily get high grades in elite schools because they have to balance their studies with working jobs to pay them. – what he calls “The Mighty Middle.”

“I’m glad to see they’re getting a little bit of respect — they’re the Rodney Dangerfield of students,” Lomax said. “They don’t always achieve the highest academic results. But they stay in the fight. They do the work. And they get the degree. And they have to work double because people don’t always focus on them and gives them support.

He said these students, who attend “the workhorse institutions of American higher education – community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, state universities,” are also working hard and making a big impact in their communities in once they graduate.

“Helping them on that journey is very important,” Lomax said, adding that the mentorship component of the program, which will include Fidelity employees as well as other volunteers, is just as important as the financial scholarships.

Drew Ve’e, a junior at the University of Utah, said the mentorship he received from the Fidelity-sponsored Opportunity Scholars program over the past four months has greatly helped his studies as a finance major and as a general student.

Ve’e, 29, said he transferred to the University of Utah to fully focus on his studies, after leaving Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was a quarterback on the football team. Her mentor eased the transition and made her feel better about her decision, as well as offering tips on her resume and finding scholarships.

“It really helped me gain more confidence,” Ve’e said. “And we have similar backgrounds in sports and college, so it was easy to connect with him and I felt very comfortable.”

Ve’e said that between scholarships and campus jobs, she should be able to graduate debt-free, an achievement Fidelity prioritizes because college debt is not only a financial problem, but also an emotional one. because of all the anxiety involved. with this.

Fidelity’s Invest in My Education program is designed to address as many barriers to debt-free graduation as possible, Everhart said, including systematic donations to better prepare high school students for more education. But for him, the emphasis on mentorship is personal.

“I’m excited to share my background as a young Black woman growing up in a small town where people invested in me and saw something in me to motivate me to keep going,” she said. “I want to make sure these students hear from people who believe in them and take the time to listen to them, listen to their backgrounds.”

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