Cadwalader hosted its 6th Annual Girls in Finance Workshop for dozens of New York City high school girls at the firm's New York office earlier this week. Inspired by the “Girls Who Code” movement, the program is designed for student participants to gain hands-on exposure to elementary finance and investment concepts from women clients who are financial services professionals, along with Cadwalader women attorneys, all of whom helped lead the various exercises.
Cadwalader, as a major law firm with a heavy focus on financial services, saw an opportunity to help develop diverse talent pipelines in our local communities for careers in the vital legal and financial services sectors. In addition to the NYC event, the firm also hosts Girls in Finance workshops at our Charlotte, North Carolina office.
The two-hour afternoon session in NYC featured a range of exercises for the students, including an interactive Budgeting, Saving, and Investing quiz (facilitated through a mobile phone voting app); small-group networking activities that encouraged interaction among the students and women leaders situated at each table, with a focus on their career trajectories and life choices; a stock purchasing game; and an introduction to “Goalsetter,” an interactive finance app that is designed to educate children on saving, budgeting and investing through games, memes, and pop culture.
The dynamic afternoon concluded with a Q&A and pizza party social for the students and an on-site reception for the professionals. Many of our Fund Finance clients attended the event as panelists and table hosts, and enjoyed the drinks reception afterwards. Following two years of COVID-induced Zoom events, it was exciting to welcome many of these clients back after their prior years of attending and contributing to this signature event.
In the past five years since Cadwalader launched the Girls in Finance workshop, more than 350 high school girls in NYC and Charlotte have participated, creating meaningful impact for all involved: the girls leave with solid learnings and some new role models; the female professionals engage in fulfilling mentoring; and administrators from the participating high schools receive key takeaways and insights about their students.
