Students at Spelman College will now be able to learn about financial wellness in a first-of-its-kind program. A new partnership with investment platform, Stackwell, and social impact organization, Fintech in Action, will provide finance and investing courses to the women-only school. Each student in the program will be given a seeded Stackwell account of $250 in order to help them start building financial success during their time in college.
Stackwell and Fintech in Action announced the new initiative in a press release.
Spelman’s First-Of-Its-Kind Program
“Going into the Braven Capstone Challenge, I wanted our sponsorship to offer a challenge question and prize that made an impact beyond the classroom,”Director of Fintech in Action, Korene E. J. Smith, said in the statement. “We truly believe this program has the potential to be scaled to larger cohorts of students and expanded across HBCUs and other colleges and universities – providing access to critical and functional financial education and an understanding of the markets to countless Black students in America.”
The first cohort of Spelman students to partake in the new program have already been chosen. Sixteen Spelman sophomores who won the Braven Accelerator Capstone Challenge will go through the program’s course. The initiative will progress over a three year time span to adequately assess how students are able to build wealth given the proper tools to do so. The program is designed to allow the participant to eventually graduate with the funds they gained in order to have a solid foundation when beginning their professional careers.
Morgan Newson is a rising junior and participant of the program. She shared her excitement to be a part of the experience.
“To be provided with a program that teaches us how to be successful investors on our own, along with a seeded account is a huge deal,” “Newson said. “As a Black woman, it means a lot to have this kind of support and head start in learning how to build wealth. Being able to start years before graduation gives me leverage as I think about financial stability and my future.”