Born in Jamaica and raised primarily in Brooklyn, Vanessa Edwards ’19 knew early on that her education would largely be self-financed. After emigrating with her family to New York City at age 4, she spent her high school years in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania before returning to the city. Edwards did not, like many, go straight to college. Instead, she worked multiple jobs for several years, saving until she could afford tuition. She enrolled in Kingsborough Community College (CUNY), where she earned an associate of applied science degree before transferring to Brooklyn College. Pursuing a business administration degree in finance, Edwards juggled one or two classes while working full-time, taking semesters off to meet financial demands. She says visits to the Student Activities, Involvement, and Leadership (SAIL) Center helped her with a tight-knit staff that included Afro-Caribbean women who understood her experiences and championed her goals. They guided her through funding processes for the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) club, for which she was president, and encouraged her to stay involved in campus activities. “The women at SAIL kept me focused,” says Edwards. “I could tell everyone there wanted the best for me. They saw that I was definitely driven and had tenacity. They made themselves available for me any time I needed guidance or had questions.” In addition to SAIL, Edwards found support from staff and counselors at the Magner Career Center. She shared that they were instrumental in helping her obtain internships that aligned with her career goals. Her first was at Playfair Planning, an independent financial firm based in Brooklyn that provides holistic financial planning. She then interned at the NYC Small Business Resource Network run by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Bloomberg L.P. came next—an internship that led directly to a full-time offer once she graduated. Edwards worked in financial products, analytics, and sales while there, and also served as a campus ambassador, helping to recruit fellow Brooklyn College students for internships at Bloomberg. A stint in the Consumer Insight and Marketing Department at Black Entertainment Television (BET) Media Group rounded out Edwards’ internship portfolio before she joined Bloomberg full time in June 2019. Most of her internships would not have been possible without stipends—a Magner Career Center stipend, a Robert J. Sisti Memorial Internship (overseen by the Brooklyn College Foundation)—and scholarships from the New York chapter of NABA and the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute, the latter of which paid for Edwards’ final year of college.
