DETROIT — Helping Wall Street firms to look more like the American public they serve is the idea behind a new internship program designed for students who attend historically black colleges and universities.
The program, dubbed Gateway to Leadership, will be unveiled this
week at the Money
Management Institute’s annual conference in Washington.
“This internship program is one of our signature new initiatives,” said Charles Widger, president and chief executive of Brinker Capital Inc. in Berwyn, Pa.
“You need a work force which matches your market,” he said.
Brinker is one of the nine financial services industry firms that already have signed on to offer summer internships to students who attend five participating colleges.
The program is co-sponsored by Brinker, the Washington-based MMI and the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The paid internships will be offered to sophomores and juniors who have expressed an interest in working in the financial services industry and who have various other qualifications related to academic achievement and community service.
“We have found a number of MMI member firms that are attracted to this program, because it exposes them to quality students,” Mr. Widger said.
According to MMI’s data, the need for more diversity in the financial services industry is illustrated by the fact that blacks make up just 2% of the retail brokerage sales force. They also represent just 8% of the top-level wage earners at Fortune 500 companies, according to the MMI.
The internship program is designed both to expose the students to the financial services industry and to build a mentoring program through an internship alumni association.
In addition to Brinker, the firms already on board include St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.;
Bank of America Corp. of Charlotte, N.C.; The Bank of New York Co. Inc.; San Francisco-based Charles Schwab & Co Inc.; New York-based
Goldman Sachs & Co.; Boston-based IXIS Asset Management Group; New York-based Morgan Stanley; and
Prudential Financial Inc. of Newark, N.J.
The participating schools are Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Hampton (Va.) University, Howard University in Washington and Southern University in Baton Rouge, La.
According to Mr. Widger, the list of participating firms is likely to grow as the program develops.
Eventually, he said, the program could be extended to include internships specifically for other groups, including Asians, Hispanics and women.
