NEW YORK, NY (TIP): The City University of New York and JPMorganChase, o October 14, welcomed the Brooklyn community to the Medgar Evers College campus for a financial health summit. The event’s theme of hip-hop and finance utilizes people’s appreciation for and knowledge of the music genre, which has its origins in New York City, to showcase how they can manage their finances and accrue wealth.

At the summit, guests attended panel discussions to gain insights on financial health from Brooklyn-based business leaders and entrepreneurs. Community partners in attendance offered free financial coaching and resources for participants. Panelists included Gerard “HipHopGamer” Williams, a video game champion and Hot 97 radio personality who teaches technology and financial literacy through gaming to NYC public school students. JPMorganChase experts also joined Medgar Evers classes to provide students with financial health education on topics including budgeting, saving and building credit.

“As a public university that is unmatched in its ability to provide transformational economic outcomes for its graduates, it’s the responsible thing to do to make sure that our students have the preparation necessary to make the most of their finances,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “I am thankful to JPMorganChase for their partnership in providing our students, faculty and staff, and the greater community in Brooklyn, with this essential resource.”

“This JPMorganChase-sponsored Hip Hop and Finance summit was phenomenal. The CUNY Medgar Evers College partnership with JPMorganChase is rooted in our college’s social justice mission. The partnership helps to advance our students, uplift their families and positively impact this historically underserved community where our college is located,” said Medgar Evers College President Patricia Ramsey. “The JPMorganChase-Medgar Evers College partnership, which began with a focus on providing financial literacy for Medgar Evers College students, has grown to include wealth building for our college students, our summer youth program participants and their parents. The partnership is truly transformational.”

“Financial health education is a key component to community empowerment — and we are proud to partner with Medgar Evers College and the City University of New York to share our expertise with their students, faculty and the Brooklyn community as a whole,” said Nichol King, executive director for community & business development at JPMorganChase. “We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership with Medgar Evers College and across Brooklyn, including leveraging our new Community Center Branch just a mile from campus.”

The summit is the latest example of the collaboration between Medgar Evers College and JPMorganChase, which forged a financial health partnership last year with the set goals of improving students’ money management skills and credit building. This effort also includes a focus on preventing susceptibility to fraud. The college and JPMorganChase have since hosted a series of workshops for students in the college’s business classes.

The leading financial institution also has existing relationships with the greater University system. In 2020, JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon was among the 27 chief executives to launch the New York Jobs CEO Council, a coalition in partnership with the University that has been charged with hiring 100,000 low-income New Yorkers — including 25,000 CUNY graduates — by the end of the decade.

Located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Medgar Evers College offers both associate and baccalaureate degrees. A four-year college within the CUNY system, Medgar Evers College was established in 1970 with a mandate to meet the educational and social needs of the Central Brooklyn community. In its commitment to providing students with a sound academic foundation as well as an opportunity for personal development, Medgar Evers College offers high-quality, professional, career-oriented degree programs within the context of a liberal arts education. Medgar Evers College is part of NASA’s Space Grant Project as well as the Thurgood Marshall College Fund as a predominantly Black institution. For more information, visit mec.cuny.edu.

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving more than 233,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 50,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “genius grants.” The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background. To learn more about CUNY, visit https://www.cuny.edu.