A hot topic -- diversity - will be in the spotlight at the FPA's annual conference in Seattle next month.
The FPA has announced the recipients of its three 2014 Diversity Scholarships, who will receive a one-year membership and complimentary registration and travel expenses to the conference, which will be held Sept. 20-22.
Scarlett (Yuanyuan) Che, Rianka Dorsainvil and Phuong Luong will be honored for "working to encourage diversity in the financial planning profession and the population served."
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Che, a client service associate with Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Bethesda, Md., was born in China and worked at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China helping families with loans and liability management. In Maryland, she supports and helps develop niche practices that cater to the needs of diverse client populations, especially Asian-American.
Dorsainvil is an advisor with Financial Services Advisory in Rockville, Md. and volunteers her time to prepare taxes for low-income families in predominantly African-American and Hispanic communities through the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. She also manages a blog where she writes about personal finance issues for young professionals, single women and minorities. A recent graduate of the FPA Residency Program, Dorsainvil is a member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors.
Luong is a financial coaching associate at Compass Working Capital, a nonprofit organization that provides financial coaching to low-income working families in Boston. Phuong, whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, focuses on educating professionals who are first- and second-generation immigrants about the need for financial planning.
Criteria for the scholarship include raising awareness of the profession in diverse communities; serving diverse communities with financial planning; and increasing professional opportunities for diverse communities within the financial planning profession.
FPA has been at the forefront in advocating for, and fostering, diversity in the profession, FPA executive director and CEO Lauren Schadle said in a statement. Each of these scholarship winners share in this commitment and, through their actions, are having an impact in the profession and the communities they serve. We look forward to recognizing their accomplishments in Seattle.
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