What if a student's future never came down to who was willing to co-sign for a loan?

In Episode 3 of The Abundance Imperative podcast, Last Mile Education Fund founder and CEO Ruthe Farmer sits down with Jeannie Tarkenton, founder and CEO of FundingU, a fintech company reimagining student lending around graduate outcomes rather than pre-existing family wealth.

Jeannie shares the origin story behind Funding U, including a last mile moment with her college roommate, MacKenzie Scott, plus how differently the financial system treats people based on their assets. She and Ruthe dig into why so few private student loans reach students without a wealthy co-signer, and why the final months of a degree are where the greatest need and the greatest ROI exist.

Along the way, Ruthe and Jeannie explore the real economics of finishing college: why small-ticket problems can keep students from graduating, why free tuition alone does not put gas in a car or food on a plate, and how nonprofits like Last Mile and for-profit companies like Funding U are taking a new approach to paying for college. 

Learn more and support Last Mile's mission:

https://www.lastmile-ed.org/

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Who gets to build the technology that will shape all of our lives? 

Across 20 years in UK Parliament and a decade in the U.S. tech industry, Oona King has made a career of pairing two things she believes are far weaker apart: how to change the system and how to tell a story. 

Through her career, Oona has spent her career fighting the assumption that wealthy, well resourced communities hold a monopoly on talent. Drawing on her years representing the poorest constituency in the UK and organizing low-paid workers, she makes the case for porous institutions that let talent in rather than hoarding it, and for valuing potential over privilege.

In this episode, Oona and Last Mile founder & CEO Ruthe Farmer explore what it means to invest in hidden talent, and how the U.S. is sitting on a competitive advantage it often fails to use: an expansive population at scale, ready to help build and direct the AI systems now reshaping every part of daily life.

This episode makes the case, in the clearest possible terms, for why investing in STEM students close to the finish line is not charity. It is the highest-yield investment in the American tech workforce available to any donor right now, and a question about what kind of future we are building, and who we are trusting to build it.

Learn more and support Last Mile's mission:

https://www.lastmile-ed.org/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What determines the trajectory of a STEM career? It’s all about who shows up for you at the right time. 

In this first episode of the Abundance Imperative podcast, Last Mile Education Fund founder and CEO Ruthe Farmer sits down with Dr. Marvin Carr-Ligons, Walmart’s Senior Director of Community Resilience and a member of Last Mile’s Champions Board. 

They reflect on their work together at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration, and how their two different working class paths led to a shared mission to help financially vulnerable students achieve economic mobility.  

Marvin shares his story growing up in Detroit and how falling in love with science on a childhood field trip led him to pursue a doctorate in electric and electronic engineering. He highlights how key gifts from benefactors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation cleared a pathway for his future at the White House and beyond, and why “time poverty” is a barrier that tech leaders have a responsibility to clear to help future workers learn and join the workforce. 

Ruthe explores her nomadic, unpredictable childhood and how she almost didn’t discover her STEM talent until a professor refused to let her take a course pass/fail.

Together, these two leaders get into how their talent was considered unlikely, and how Last Mile Education Fund is helping to uncover the hidden potential of students in similar financial circumstances.  

Marvin shares how Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are recognizing the need for an innovation talent pipeline, and how the company is helping workers in entry-level positions scale up their skills to prepare for leadership roles at Walmart across tech, management, and more. 

This episode makes the case — in the clearest possible terms — for why investing in STEM students who are close to the finish line isn't about charity. It's the highest-yield investment in the American tech workforce available to any donor right now.

Learn more and support Last Mile's mission:

https://www.lastmile-ed.org/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.