Claremont McKenna College and Pitzer College have partnered with Seeds of Fortune, a foundation which supports women of color in higher education, according to an Oct. 1 press release.
Seeds of Fortune focuses on supporting families in the scholarship and financial aid processes as well as training students, namely women of color, on financial literacy. Its offerings include workshops for high school students dealing with the college admissions process, programs that support students transitioning from colleges to careers and fairs that connect them with partnered colleges.
For the 2021-2022 school year, the organization has nine college partners coming on-board, including schools like Occidental College and George Washington University. CMC and Pitzer are among the colleges partnering with Seeds of Fortune as “liberal arts partners.”
Since its founding in 2013, Seeds of Fortune has graduated over 80 scholars, boasts an online network of over 300 program members and has assisted women of color in obtaining over eight million dollars’ worth of scholarships, according to a 2020 Forbes article.
Citing the decline of FAFSA applications last year, Seeds of Fortune is seeking to further bridge the gap between families and educational institutions in accessing financial aid.
It hopes to accomplish this through these “alliances with educational institutions who are committed to the organization’s values and want to provide opportunities for the demographic they serve,” the press release said.
“I applaud the leadership of each of these institutions for seeing the benefits of providing a platform for young women of color to not only attend, but afford college. I look forward to expanding our partnerships and know this will play a valuable role in how we serve our members,” Nitiya Walker, a Posse Scholar and the organization’s founder and executive director, said in the press release.
Seeds of Fortune is also offering its students who applied to CMC, Pitzer and Occidental a 3-day, all-expenses-paid trip in late November to visit the Southern California colleges.
Siena Swift PO ’22 is intending to major in politics. She is from Kailua, Hawai’i and is a news staff writer.