The funding commitment is part of Tech Equity Miami, which is focused on creating more opportunities in tech for Miami-Dade’s underserved communities.
By Nancy Dahlberg
Florida Memorial University, the only Historically Black College and University in South Florida, received a $1 million commitment from JPMorgan Chase to support traditionally under-resourced students pursue careers in the technology sector.
With the new funding, the university will expand its Computer Science and STEM programs. The funding was announced Thursday on FMU’s campus.
“Everything we do is to ensure our students have a competitive advantage to compete in the global market, and we are invigorated by the generosity of JPMorgan Chase, one of the oldest financial institutions in the United States,” FMU President Jaffus Hardrick said in a statement. “Their $1 million commitment to FMU will assist our university in bridging the digital divide by helping us to amplify our Computer Science, Information Systems, and Cybersecurity programs, which are essential skills for the digital age.”
JPMorgan Chase’s funding is part of Tech Equity Miami. In 2022, JPMorgan Chase with the Knight Foundation and aīre ventures launched Tech Equity Miami, an $100 million five-year initiative focused on supporting and creating more opportunities for underserved youth and small businesses in the city’s growing technology sector.
Today’s commitment is part of the $10 million JPMorgan Chase committed to Tech Equity Miami as a founding partner, and it is the firm’s largest Tech Equity Miami investment to date, said Maria Escorcia, Executive Director of the Southeast Region for JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
“We’ve been looking at organizations and programs and really thinking about who do we want to see at the table. Who are those young job seekers that we want to see plugged in into the technology ecosystem? And so thinking about our university system again and FMU being the only HBCU in South Florida, it really made sense for us — those are the students that we want to see represented in the technology ecosystem in Miami and they are not at the table right now,” Escorcia said in an interview with Refresh Miami.
Founded in 1879, Florida Memorial University has committed to diversifying and broadening inclusivity in the tech industry, where so far Blacks, Latinos and women are woefully underrepresented. To achieve this, the university has proposed a comprehensive capacity-building initiative and aggressive program marketing that will accompany the CS program expansion.
The big goal: to increase enrollment and graduation rates in FMU’s computer science, information systems and cybersecurity programs by 15 to 35 percent over the next three years to fuel the local economy and beyond. Currently, only 76 FMU students are pursuing these degrees – or about 8 percent of the student body.
With the JPMorgan Chase funding to grow the programs, FMU will modernize classrooms with state-of-the-art computers, enhance faculty recruitment and training, increase scholarships, and pair students with industry professionals to provide hands-on technology experience. FMU students will be working with Tech Knowledge, a new tech skills-focused program on FMU’s campus already offering tech-sales training and more, and CodePath, which provides free software engineering courses, technical interview training and career services for computer science students, Escorcia said. She hopes the grant sends this message to the community: “Hire locally. We’re making investments and really making sure that we’re preparing our local kids and our local workforce to take on those big jobs.”
JPMorgan Chase has deployed $4 million of its$10 million commitment with the Tech Equity Miami initiative so far, and its one part of the finance giant’s longtime ongoing philanthropic work in South Florida. With these investments, the company aims to help advance access to technology, education and careers for diverse individuals at all stages of their lives, said Escorcia. For example, some of JPMorgan’s other recent grantees include America on Tech, to advance technology education for Miami-Dade high school students; CodePath, to provide education and services for college students; Brainstation, to support coding bootcamps for people seeking to launch new careers in the tech industry; Endeavor, to support diverse entrepreneurship programs; and Rebrand Cities, which helps small businesses take advantage of the innovation economy.
To date, Tech Equity Miami has served over 500 individuals and businesses, providing technical assistance and help finding employment in the Miami tech sector.
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