DePaul/Greenwood Project Partnership Connects Black and Latinx Students to Careers in Finance

This summer, DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business is partnering with the Greenwood Project to help deliver financial literacy, coding, career skills and investment strategies to more than 200 Black and Latinx youth, largely from Chicago’s South and West sides.

Greenwood Project works with both high school and college students, primarily in intensive, paid training programs at DePaul each summer. All students are paid to participate in the program, providing them a safe, reliable part-time job each summer. College students also receive a paid internship in the financial services industry with Greenwood Project's corporate partners. DePaul is hosting the in-person, summer intensives for 10 weeks in June, July and August. Tom Donley, interim dean for the Driehaus College of Business, sees synergy between DePaul’s goals and that of the Greenwood Project.

"The Driehaus College of Business is thrilled to partner with the Greenwood Project. The summer boot camp that has resulted from this partnership aligns closely with our shared values and goals to educate and prepare the next generation of business leaders,” he says. “The Greenwood Project has seen tremendous growth over the last few years and has created a successful program that provides Black and Latinx students with career pathways into the financial services industry.”

The goal of this annual program is to empower Black and Latinx communities to overcome generational cycles of poverty by introducing students to wealth-building career pathways through the intensive study of finance. DePaul is one of more than 40 companies, universities and nonprofits participating in the 2022 program.

Founded in 2016 by DePaul alumnus Bevon Joseph (BA '19 - SCPS) and his wife, Elois, the Greenwood Project’s focus on generational wealth through careers in finance traces back to its namesake. The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., was once known as "Black Wall Street," a neighborhood where the Black community thrived amidst generations of racial animus. Black Wall Street was destroyed by white mobs during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Greenwood Project honors this legacy of Black Wall Street and has helped students move from the South Side of Chicago to Wall Street in New York.

“I am forever grateful for DePaul’s support of the Greenwood Project,” Joseph says. “My DePaul professor encouraged me to turn the Greenwood Project concept into an organization. The faculty and staff at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center pushed me to refine my idea while providing me with resources for growth. I’m thrilled to see our college and high school scholars back on the DePaul campus after two years of being virtual. Thank you to the Driehaus College of Business for their continuing support and partnership.”

Photos courtesy of the Greenwood Project