From the Publisher

By Dee Dixon

Cochrane Students Begin Their Investment Journey with PEEP

Some of you still may not know that Pride Magazine has a nonprofit arm called PEEP. Founded in 2007, PEEP has relaunched as the Pride Educational Empowerment Program with three foundational pillars: career mentoring, entrepreneurship and wealth creation. The fundamental goal of PEEP is to tackle the wealth gap by eliminating future socio-economic disparities within the African American community.

Under the wealth creation umbrella, PEEP successfully launched Charlotte’s First Generation Investors Program (FGI) in collaboration with Cochrane Collegiate Academy, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Global Endowment Management. Simply stated, FGI is a national program with an established curriculum to teach students about the stock market.

Jennifer Wyatt Kennedy, Instructional Facilitator at Cochrane, oversaw the student participation, which included 11th and 12th grade students from the school’s Career and Technical Education, Business Pathway. Each student participated and completed 12 financial literacy sessions, including an 8-week national FGI curriculum. In addition to being a great supporter of the program, Niner Finances Director Brad Yeckley was instrumental in securing five UNCC college volunteers needed to train the Cochrane students over the 8-week program. Caleb Achidi, also a UNCC student, did an excellent job in instructing the volunteers in order to present information to the students on the importance of investing, the stock market, diversification and portfolio management, mutual funds, ETFs and financial planning.

On April 26, 2022, eighteen Cochrane students and partners concluded the first cohort of the chapter on the campus of UNCC. During the celebration, students presented their portfolios, with each receiving $100 to begin their investments!

What a wonderful opportunity for students of color to start their first journey in investing. The PEEP FGI program puts real money into the hands of students of color who have never invested before.

Below: Cochrane Collegiate Academy students present their financial portfolios.

Jarrell Rivera Kalera Martin

Silas Mackins Taleah Leake

IF YOU OR YOUR CORPORATION WOULD LIKE TO JOIN PEEP IN HELPING STUDENTS TACKLE THE WEALTH GAP FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, SEND AN EMAIL TO INFO@PRIDEMAGAZINE.NET AND LET ME KNOW.

All hands on deck.