Young Executives of Color Program receives support from Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young has pledged $75,000 over the next three years to the Foster School’s Business Undergraduate Diversity Services in support of the Young Executives of Color Program.

Established in 2006, Young Executives of Color (YEOC) is a 9 month college pipeline program focused on engaging and assisting high school students of color in a comprehensive curriculum including: college readiness, professional development and leadership activities, and lectures rooted in business disciplines.

Additionally, all YEOC participants are paired with a Foster School of Business student mentor who helps them navigate the program, develop tools for academic and personal success in high school, and prepare for college application and scholarship processes.  Mentors also provide students with information about various business majors and their academic experience at the Foster School.

A majority of the YEOC student participants are among the first in their family to attend college. Graduates of last year’s program are attending institutions around the country, including the UW, U.S. Naval Academy, Duke, and Notre Dame.

Given the goals of the program, Ernst & Young’s support is a perfect match.  One of the company’s three corporate responsibility initiatives is education, specifically “increasing access to higher education, especially for disadvantaged and minority students, by helping to engage them in the learning process and by facilitating their understanding of how to finance education.”

Ernst and Young’s support will allow the YEOC program to grow its scope, breadth of programming and overall reach of student participation.