Unique Partnership Helps Girls Build Bigger Dreams
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Earlier this week, Texas Wall Street Women, a networking and philanthropy group of women in investment management, gathered in Dallas to discuss investment and market trends. The event was held in support of the group’s philanthropic work supporting the Foundation for the Education of Young Women, a public private partnership supporting six all-girls schools around the state.
As one of the key benefactors of the foundation, the networking group provides mentors and financial support for disadvantaged young women attending the Foundation’s schools around Texas. To date, every girl who has participated in the program has been accepted to college – many of them, the first in their family not only to go on to higher education, but simply to finish high school.
Amy Bean, Executive Director of the FEYW, commented, “Texas Wall Street Women’s financial and professional support has been essential in empowering us to meet our college readiness goals for the girls in FEYW’s six schools.”
She added, “Our alumnae enroll in college at nearly twice the rate of other students from the state, and with TWSW’s continued support, we plan to see more phenomenal results unfold at all of our schools across the state of Texas.”
TWSW’s support of the Foundation shows how, by working together, women can make the impact of mentoring even bigger.
Being Part of Something Historical
Tina Hernandez, an Investment Advisor at Tugar Capital Management, has been a mentor with the TWSW program for a few years now. “It’s meant to support senior girls on their way off to college. It’s a difficult year.”
She explained that, besides socioeconomic challenges and questions that come with moving from an all-girls school to co-ed college, mentors talk the young women through concerns ranging from the Freshman 15 to romance to what to major in. “They don’t necessarily have family members at home to rely on for experience.”
“For some of the families, this is historical, and it’s so special to be a part of that change. The families are so proud,” she continued.
Hernandez said that she herself had benefited from mentoring when she was younger. Her family was incredibly supportive, she said, but they didn’t always have the answers she needed. “I grew up in inner city New York. I was the first generation to graduate from school and college, and I benefited from understanding worlds outside my own little world. It meant a lot when people saw potential in you.”
She continued, “Getting access to the ‘how to’ is so important for these young women to realize their full potential, achieve their dreams, and become self sufficient, and help their families in some instances.”
Hernandez encourages her peers to become mentors, even though the time commitment is high. “They’re so motivated – we give them the ‘how to,’ and they do the rest from there.”
She added, “It’s really not a lot of time – they have a lot going on as well!”
Partnership for the Future
The connection between TWSW and the FEYW dates back a few years, said Marianne Scott Dwight, General Counsel, Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company. “It’s not just a mentoring program,” she explained. The group also works with groups of girls at the high school level and their families as they prepare for life after school.
Scott, Co-Chair of the Philanthropy committee, has been involved with projects with the FEYW in Austin. The group has helped set up college fairs, worked with Dress for Success, and connected girls with people in the community.
“I think when you’re trying to help someone else, you learn a little about yourself,” Scott said. “When these girls ask questions you can see how you would answer, and it helps looking at your experiences from a different point of view.”
She added, “It’s not all about business, but where we’ve come from and where we’re going. And I think that’s very important.”
“First of all, engaging in any kind of philanthropy, especially when you’re talking about folks who didn’t have the same advantages, it’s something very important to do. It benefits yourself, and it benefits your children, and your future.” Beyond that, she said, working with a group on philanthropy enables you to have a much bigger impact. “Its good to do it with others – it’s hard to do it on your own.”
She explained, “I really believe it takes a village. It’s really one person at a time. You help one, she helps another, and they help another person. That piece is so important. You might be a small group, but it’s so important.”
Building Dreams
Gina E. Betts, Partner at law firm Locke Lord LLP, is chairman of the FEYW and a member of TWSW. She explained that the network of schools was founded by a former client, Lee Posey. “He called and said he had started talking to a young woman on the train. He said, ‘I want to send her to school.’ Then it grew to 15 girls. Then he heard about the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, and said, ‘I want to do this in Texas.’”
Soon, Posey and his wife, Sally, founded the FEYW, with the goal of providing top-notch education to underprivileged girls. The foundation has since grown to six schools, and is looking to add more.
Betts recalled how in the first year, when the girls were heading off to college, many didn’t have luggage, so TWSW chipped in to provide it. The group also works with the girls’ parents, on how to support their daughters as they travel to school.
Finally, she said, she hopes the girls gain a broader vision of the impact they can have on the world. “I talked on career day, and I got their attention by talking about the starting salary they could have [in a professional career].”
“I said, ‘I know a lot of you want to do something that can help people. Let me tell you the things I’ve been able to do for charity because of my job, and my clients. If you use your money and connections to help other people, you can do more.’”
“Many of them had never thought of careers on Wall Street. Here are kids who never dreamed of college, and now they can actually go.”
