It was a great day Kenya Bryant! Thank you for your partnership!
I’m incredibly proud to have led two amazing events last week with the Citi Foundation and our grantee partners, Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). At the top of the week, Citi Foundation welcomed nearly 40 students from TMCF’s HBCU Career Incubator program to Citi HQ for an immersive, 2.5-day summit of professional development workshops, financial education seminars, and capped it off with an impressive case study competition. What started out as a brainstorming session with Kimani Robinson really morphed into a flagship program that we are beyond excited to support. We then closed out the week welcoming over 100 MLT Ascend scholars to Citi HQ for a full-day celebration marking 10-years of the MLT Ascend program, a college success and career readiness program for first-generation, low-income college students. Through Christopher Alemán’s leadership, MLT inducted their largest cohort of Ascend scholars — students also met with their MLT coaches, networked with Citi employees, and participated in a financial literacy workshop led by Citi Community Relations. Huge thanks to Gawain Patterson, Brandee McHale, Kira Cordoba-Brown, and all the Citi colleagues that spoke to, mentored, and poured into these scholars and the Foundation’s programming. Also extending sincere gratitude to our grantees for their partnership and the folks at Mastercard, TransUnion®, Delivering Good, Inc. , and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for their expertise and collaboration. As I reflect on last week, I am humbled to do this work, and for the opportunity to leverage my corporate, youth development, and non-profit fundraising backgrounds to inform how I approach my role as a funder. I remember a time when I thought the worlds couldn’t be more different, but it all makes so much sense. Welcoming nearly 140 Black and Brown young people into our offices and centering them through days full of programming, affirmation and belonging makes so much sense. To the TMCF and MLT Scholars, you are brilliant and you are light. It has been thoroughly rewarding to see your growth and we cannot wait to see what you’re up to next. Thank you and have a great semester ahead! KARIM L., Kerry-Ann Poyser-Edwards, Zebradedra Hunter, Justin Cook, Kehinde Moore, MBA, CFE, Sivona Blake, MPA, Tiago Rachelson, Ysbely M. Santos, Shimonah Israel, Larissa Longchamp, Andres Diez, Melissa Cepeda, Ariadne Reza, Janet A., Godlove Ntam, Briana Demming, Danielle Zimmerman, Anikka King, Matthew Fasciano, and so so many more. Thank you!
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