PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (July 30, 2020) – Charles Schwab Foundation (Schwab) has donated $250,000 to support scholarships for students in the College of Business at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). The donation marks the largest single non-endowment scholarship gift in the college’s 44-year history.
Photo shows the Agriculture/Business Building at PVAMU.
“We are delighted to receive this gift from Charles Schwab,” said Munir Quddus, dean of the College of Business and professor of economics. “The Schwab scholarships will go a long way toward attracting and retaining talented students in our finance program.”
Funds from the multinational financial services company will be available to support PVAMU students interested in pursuing a career in finance or investments.
“Our financial planning program, led by Finance Instructor Danny Harvey, has been recognized as a rising program, and it is the only Certified Financial Planning (CFP) Board-registered program at an HBCU [Historically Black College/University] in Texas that satisfies the education coursework requirement. Students who complete the minor are eligible to take the CFP exam,” Dean Quddus said.
Schwab’s contribution is part of the firm’s ongoing effort to attract diverse talent by recruiting from underrepresented communities, including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people with military backgrounds.
“We are fully committed to narrowing the wide disparities in the representation of minorities in the financial services industry,” Quddus said.
For the past two years, Charles Schwab has supported PVAMU’s College of Business as one of the sponsors of the Young Investor’s Symposium, a one-day event for PVAMU students and high school students who participate in a semester-long stock trading challenge. This year, Schwab stockholders approved the acquisition of online broker TD Ameritrade; in 2017, PVAMU received a $25,000 emerging program grant from TD Ameritrade to aid the financial planning program. TD Ameritrade has also sponsored more than 12 PVAMU finance students and faculty at its annual conferences over the past few years.
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By Kendall Hebert