Virnitia Hendricks (left), Santander US Chief Diversity Officer, with a City Year Operation HOPE graduate.
Santander Consumer (SC) celebrated its first class of Dallas City Year Corps members who completed the Santander Consumer Foundation funded financial literacy program delivered by Operation HOPE.
The program, launched in Dallas in November 2021, provided 20 City Year AmeriCorps members with a six-month financial literacy and empowerment curriculum from Operation HOPE. The program focused on personal financial coaching for budgeting, saving, improving credit scores, and establishing and managing credit.
To celebrate the completion of the program, Santander US Chief Diversity Officer Virnitia Hendricks hosted a reception recognizing and honoring the students’ achievements at Santander Tower in Dallas.
“These are the skills and healthy financial habits that can not only help produce positive short-term impact like being able to buy a car, but it can also yield transformative longer-term impact like building generational wealth,” says Hendricks.
In addition to completing the program, graduates also received $1,000 from the Santander Consumer Foundation to begin saving, investing, or paying down debt in honor of their newly learned financial literacy skills.
Fahmi Karam, SC’s Chief Financial Officer, serves as Committee Chair for the Development Committee at City Year. He believes that the youth in our communities must have the resources available to them to become anything they dream of. And City Year is an excellent way to set our youth up for success.
“All students deserve equal access to a great future, but they need the tools and resources to succeed,” explains Karam. “I enjoy being a part of their journey and providing that support.”
The program is part of Santander Consumer’s $50 million multi-year commitment to boost financial inclusion and grow digital equity in communities in the U.S.
