Texas Southern University received $750,000 at the Old Spanish Truist Bank which will be used to strengthen the university's banking program.
TSU president Lesia Crumpton-Young said the money will help transform the lives of students.
"But also, [it will] make sure that our banking industry is transformed [to] having good, diverse talent that they can count on in their workforce," she said.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, only 7% of executives and managers in the banking and credit industry are African American; 5% are Hispanic, and around 4% are Asian.
Juan Solis is the Vice President of Truist Bank. He said they chose to fund this program as a way to combat disproportionate representation in the field.
"We understood the Future Bankers Program at TSU was an outstanding opportunity for us to help ensure that we have more people of color in commercial banking," Solis said.
The Future Bankers Leadership Program (FBLP) at TSU started in 2021 and exposes students to the industry through their curriculum, interaction with executives and industry mentors, and commercial banking internships.
John Scroggins is a senior executive at Allegiance Bank, which has merged into Stellar Bancorp Inc., a Houston-headquartered bank and the largest community bank that is Texas-based. He took part in the effort to launch the program and spoke about it in 2020 when the program was first introduced.
"This program is important to provide a pipeline of future bankers needed to grow and impact our industry by educating the next generation of community bank leaders," Scroggins said in a press release. “Plus, it is foundational to support the local business community."
