In 2015, we welcomed Fiona Asiedu onto our female mentoring scheme, Momentum. Through the programme, she received one-to-one mentoring from a mid-level executive at State Street investment bank to help her develop her professional skills.
Now, two years later, Fiona has grabbed the attention of every news channel following a recent crowd-funding campaign she set up so she could study at Harvard.
Within just 24 hours, Fiona had reached her goal, largely due to a generous contribution from rapper Stormzy, and now looks forward to studying human development and psychology at the world renowned American university in August.
Having achieved such a positive response to the campaign, Fiona has since increased her target so she can set up a foundation to support other young African/Caribbean women from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds wishing to attend Oxford or Harvard.
The foundation that Fiona has set up shares similar aims with the mentoring programme, helping young females reach their career potential.
The unique cross-firm mentoring programme, run in partnership with State Street and Citi, is designed to help women advance into leadership with undergraduate women aiming for a future career in the banking industry.
Speaking about her time on the programme, Fiona said: “Not only was Momentum extremely empowering, but I was challenged to think outside of the box and exercise creativity for the business challenge. This is a skill which has been extremely helpful in projects that I have been involved including my crowdfunding campaign #SW2Harvard!”
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