The financial services industry offers a wide range of fulfilling career opportunities, from the fast-paced exhilaration of a trading floor to the breakthrough insights revealed by analyzing business sectors for new opportunities. Financial services firms need talented people to work on Wall Street, Main Street and in places around the globe. However, for some high school students who dream of working in finance – and for others who may not even realize that it’s an option – the path to get there can be confusing or daunting.
To help pave a career pathway in financial services, Morgan Stanley created the Finance Academy, which will welcome its fifth class of students this year. This virtual five-month program helps high school seniors from underrepresented communities across the United States develop their knowledge of the banking and financial services industries, expand their networks and gain access to educational resources that might otherwise be out of reach.
The curriculum includes content designed for students who are interested in finance careers, as well as more general topics for those wanting to work in other fields. The content is facilitated by Morgan Stanley’s top junior talent from business areas such as Investment Banking, Fixed Income, Institutional Equities, Research and Global Capital Markets.
Taking Steps Toward a Bright Future
The original concept for the program, which has served roughly 500 students, came from Evan Damast, Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Capital Markets (GCM). During the summer of 2020, Damast offered to help connect a client's daughter with his colleagues to discuss a potential career in finance. After making the introductions, he began to wonder if there might be a way the company could use its resources to also help young people who didn't have the same networking opportunities.
"I thought, ‘Wouldn't it be interesting if we could take the talented Analysts and Associates who work for us and help them serve as mentors or role models to some young folks who may be less plugged in to the Wall Street community?’" Damast says.
In the five years since its launch, the Finance Academy has already made a difference for students like Danny Tang, who participated in the first cohort. After completing the program, he enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, studying finance and real estate. Tang spent the summer before his senior year participating in the Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Summer Analyst Program. Tang received an offer and plans to return as a full-time employee after graduation.
Paving Pathways to Financial Careers
The Finance Academy provides a primer on the world of finance, from teaching the difference between private equity and venture capital to what goes into successfully launching an initial public offering, as well as practical skills, such as financial literacy and networking. A Walk on Wall Street was a new addition last cycle, where participants got to meet and learn from four Morgan Stanley clients. Clients met with students via Zoom breakout rooms and shared insights into their industry, the skills needed to be successful and a typical day in the life of someone in their field.
For Jacob Yuryev, the program not only offered an introduction to the world of finance; it also gave him a chance to showcase his creativity and skills. Yuryev, who was learning about finance solely through books and podcasts before the program, had the opportunity to apply his skills in a three-night capstone competition. The program culminates in a reenactment of a real-life transaction where scholars are broken into groups and tasked with developing a solution to a problem for one of Morgan Stanley‘s prior transactions. Twelve groups competed for the role of Agent and Sustainability Coordinator for a Morgan Stanley led credit facility. A panel of judges from across Morgan Stanley and our client partner, a major hospitality brand, selected one group of winning scholars. Yuryev and his teammates were dubbed 2023-24 capstone winners and rewarded with a trip to Morgan Stanley’s New York City headquarters, where they learned how to prepare for industry-specific interviews, received a private tour of the trading floor and heard from program alumni who received a Morgan Stanley internship.
From the time he first applied to the program, Yuryev, who is starting his collegiate career at Stanford University this fall, says that Morgan Stanley employees have gone out of their way to mentor him and help him learn about finance, which is both a professional interest—and an extremely personal one. As the son of two immigrant parents, “I had heard all my life how something as simple as an economic system and the way that money is allocated can affect every single person's quality of life,” he says. “Finance seems like a field where, because of its reach and because of its impact, even a small player within the field can have an impact on a lot of others.”
Building on Early Success
The Finance Academy continues to grow with another 120 students being welcomed to the next cohort. According to Melissa James, Managing Director and Vice Chairman, GCM, working to increase financial literacy across a more diverse population was a natural fit for Morgan Stanley. "One of the issues we are trying to address is the disparity in wealth that exists within many underrepresented minority groups," James says. "Increasing financial literacy among those groups and helping them become knowledgeable enough to build and create wealth is an important part of closing that gap."
And while it's possible that some of the students who participate could eventually end up working at Morgan Stanley, the ultimate goal is about much more than recruiting. "The way we will define success, in my opinion, is by making a difference in the trajectory of each student in the program--and that's not necessarily by joining Morgan Stanley," Damast says. ''That could mean getting into the college of their choice because we helped build their resume. It could mean helping to connect them to the sector of their dreams. Whatever it is that the students want to accomplish, we are going to do our best to make a real difference."
We encourage interested parties to complete this this form to be notified when the 2025-2026 cohort application launch is announced.
