Rock the Street, Wall Street is a financial education program designed to spark the interest of high school girls into careers of finance. It is proven in statistics that two out of three women state that they know little to nothing about finance. To encourage women to get into more fields in STEM, Rock the Street, Wall Street partnered with Brown Brothers Harriman to bring female financial professionals to lead classroom workshops including hands-on financial projects on money management and more during the five-session program. Workshops cover topics including, but not limited to, student loan debt, stock portfolio composition and performance, and interest rates. 

After the five-session program, students who attended at least four of the five sessions were able to take a field trip to Brown Brothers Harriman‘s headquarters on November 20, 2019. The Wall Street field trip was a great experience where female students interested in finance were given a rare glimpse into corporate office settings, workplaces and work lives of financiers. The experience allowed students to shadow female financial officers, wealth managers, comptrollers, analysts, traders, entrepreneurs, and for many of us this is their first glimpse into the world of finance, opening our eyes to a new world of possibilities. This was a critical part of the year-long program as many high school girls self-select out of finance and economics before even getting to college. By going on this trip, students were able to see women working in highly skilled positions at financial institutions; this program showed students a glimpse into their own potential futures. 

As an added bonus, participants were able to apply for the spring semester, where they were matched with mentors who identified and emphasized individual strengths, discussed college and career operations, and further developed positive money management habits. Mentors also helped interpret the students’ career and strengths assessment which identified the unique set of natural talents to maximize the potential. This pairing also provided an early social infrastructure for girls to network with women in business.