'Building A Community': Wall Street Bound Seeks To Train Underrepresented Talents For Careers In Finance, Technology

In light of increased activism around social injustices, businesses are looking to do right by their communities, and make amends.

That is according to Michael D. Campbell, who recently joined nonprofit Wall Street Bound (WSB) to recruit, train and mentor underrepresented talents for careers in finance.

“I’ve had companies that have said: ‘We can’t just keep recruiting at the same places and think we’re going to do something different.’”

Read on to learn more about how WSB is making finance more accessible for young and aspirational talents.

Early Days: In the summer of 2014, Campbell’s son had an opportunity to pursue a high school internship for Mike Wilkins’ Kingsford Capital Management.

“Our sons played basketball together, on the Berkeley High basketball team,” Campbell said. “I asked my son if he would ask Mike if he could come and work for him for the summer.

“And just like that, Mike adopted him.”

Later, while speaking with Wilkins’ wife, Campbell said he discovered that Wilkins, alongside other leaders in the investment advisory space, was looking to build a program for young, aspirational talents like Campbell’s son.

“I did research on it and found out how the industry is; it’s basically male and white. I decided to start at it and now I’m nearly six years in,” he said of founding The Street Smarts (TSS).

Campbell held his first class of five interns in 2017, all of whom have graduated, with four now working in the industry. 

Photo: Michael Campbell represents Wall Street Bound at the SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference.

Wall Street Bound: Years later, WSB founder and CEO Troy Prince, a former institutional trader with experience at leading firms on Wall Street, contacted Campbell.

The two ended up merging their initiatives with the goal of exposing more students to the finance industry skills, social capital, and mentors that make them attractive to employers.

“What I really liked about Wall Street Bound was the training aspect of it,” Campbell, who is now Wall Street Bound’s community engagement manager, explained. “Once they screen and bring the students in, they are started off with some psychological assessments.”

Thereafter, students go through 50-hour workshops — called Wall Street Bootcamps — where they get into the basics of market structure, with industry leaders.

“When they complete that, they have the ability to go to Wall Street Direct — which is 150-hours of very intense learning — and start working on their CFA,” among other programs.

An alternative program offered is the Diverse Trader Training, which lasts for one year and allows participants to manage up to $250,000 of live capital as professional traders. Program participants can keep up to 80% of the profits they generate.

Relationship Building: “We’re in the beginning stages of building a community of mentors, mentees, volunteers and firms.”

Coming into the new year, Campbell has 30 seats to fill for a program that will expose students to large boutique firms.

To fill those seats, WSB goes to the students. “I go to the junior colleges — what they call community colleges — and I find the kids where they are and train them.”

Who Is Qualified: WSB is looking to inspire and train 10,000 young urban dreamers by 2030.

Though the group is focused on helping underrepresented youths achieve more, the doors are not closed to anyone.

“If we ask people about diversity inclusion, I want to be able to say that I’ve got it too,” Campbell said. “I know what that feeling is like to be the only one.”

Photo: Wall Street Bound helps those talents with passion, whomever they are.

Going forward, WSB is looking to diversify the opportunities it exposes students to; the merger of finance and technology is of particular interest to Campbell.

“We’re going to set up training for them in fintech,” he said in reference to helping students get acquainted with the ins and outs of programming languages like Python. “We also made connections with firms like Bloomberg. They have an office in San Francisco, and they broadcast out there.”

To learn more about Wall Street Bound, check out their website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.