Wall Street Bound
Wall Street Bound’s goal is to recruit and train 10,000 underrepresented youth for careers in finance by 2030.
Launched in Summer 2019, Wall Street Bound’s goal is to recruit and train 10,000 underrepresented youth for careers in finance by 2030. Our mission is to provide urban young adults with the skills, experience, and social capital that empower them to reach their full potential through “front office” financial service careers. Wall Street Bound trains urban youth ages 16-24 in finance technical skills and the all important corporate professional skills. By cultivating the next generation of finance professionals, we hope to grow the number of people of color in finance and give underrepresented youth a chance to become future leaders on Wall Street and masters of their own financial worlds.
Since inception, across the New York City community and beyond, Wall Street Bound has hosted finance workshops, bootcamps, live and virtual company visits, and other learning opportunities for more than 200 diverse urban young college students and recent graduates. Underserved communities suffer from a lack of access to financial literacy programs. Building financial security involves harnessing the array of resources, capabilities, and institutional supports that enable vulnerable families to sustain themselves, thrive, and move up the economic ladder. Sponsoring finance education programs in schools is instrumental in cultivating a pipeline of the next generation of Wall Street titans. Leveling the playing field starts with early exposure to knowledge and the vast range of career paths within the industry.
Our solution benefits low-income individuals, families, employers, and entire cities/regions. Students gain the skills and resources, including employer connections, to acquire and maintain successful careers, far beyond family-sustaining jobs. They learn to address financial security challenges and develop lifelong strategies for economic mobility. Employers benefit from an expanded pool of qualified diverse talent, and cities/regions thrive from retooling their youth workforces.
Low-income individuals are emblematic of overlooked human potential, their limited economic mobility rooted in geography (zip code as destiny), social pathologies, and economic exclusion. We remediate these barriers by accelerating student potential in ways that employers in financial services need and prescribe.
Wall Street Bound teaches both the necessary finance technical skills for successful careers on Wall Street, and provides the professional skills and social capital needed to break into the industry. By providing opportunities to meet Wall Street giants like Leon Cooperman and Mario Gabelli, industry experts, and other finance professionals of color, students can get a foothold on the ladder to meaningful finance careers and fiscally secure futures.
