United Negro College Fund to help with summer internship program; minorities vastly underrepresented in financial services
The Money Management Institute has entered into a partnership with the United Negro College Fund to launch its fifth annual Gateway to Leadership program, which places minority college students in summer internships at financial firms.
The MMI previously had worked exclusively with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in sending 80 students through the 10-week programs at 30 MMI member firms over the past four years.
The new partnership reflects the popularity of the program, according to Christopher Davis, MMI's president.
“We've outgrown the internal capability to run the program inside MMI, and UNCF represents a new administrative partner,” he said.
The new partnership is designed to increase diversity by increasing the pipeline of students from historically black colleges and universities who are prepared to enter careers in the financial services industry, Mr. Davis explained.
The MMI, which is holding its annual conference in New York next week, is kicking off the next Gateway summer internship program with the goal of placing up to 30 interns in 2011, Mr. Davis said.
Longer-term, he added, the objective is to place at least 100 students per year and possibly to bring back some interns for a second summer.
“The real goal is to get these people hired,” he added.
Of the 80 undergraduate interns placed in the program over the past four years, 10 have been hired by MMI member firms and at least five more have found other employment as a direct result of the program, Mr. Davis said.
“Increasing diversity is a matter both of social justice and business best practice,” he said. “No ideal is more important to the American economy than equal opportunity — an equal place at the starting line.”
According to MMI's research, African-Americans make up less than 6% of the financial services industry's executives, managers and administrators, and only 4% of the total number of executives, managers and administrators in all business services.
There are currently a dozen affiliated historically black colleges providing applicants for the program, which pays $1,000 per week during the internship.
The basic applicant requirements include being an upperclassman in an affiliated college, a minimum 3.0 grade point average, a graded writing sample, recognition from a dean or professor and leadership experience.
Mr. Davis said the program typically receives about three times as many applicants as it can currently place.
