Heartland Capital Strategies and Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor have established a new impact investment fellowship to launch in summer 2017.
The main objective of the Heartland Impact Investment Summer Fellowship at Georgetown is to identify and educate a new generation of responsible investors.
“It's our first effort to try to get to the next generation of capital stewards. We want to reach out to the kids that are currently in school,” said Thomas Croft, executive director of the Steel Valley Authority, in a phone interview. The Steel Valley Authority co-founded Heartland Capital Strategies, an advocacy group that aims to press pension funds to engage in responsible investing, invest in good jobs and revitalize industrial communities, along with the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO.
The group committed to launch the effort with at least 10 fellows, drawing students from Georgetown, Howard University and the Catholic University of America. The program is expected to grow to dozens of fellows in the next few years and expand to other universities.
Students will be placed in seven- to eight-week field practicums with responsible investment funds and capital stewardship offices.
The program will conclude with a weeklong academic seminar and capstone project at Georgetown, with faculty drawn from local investment, labor and business, and urban leaders.
“We see this as a way for the millennial generation to establish career paths beyond just being a day trader on Wall Street,” Mr. Croft added.
Students will be recruited at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with an emphasis on those in business and finance, urban planning and community development, environmental and sustainable development, and labor and law programs.
