Advancing Initiatives That Change Lives

High-achieving first generation students from under-resourced communities face significant challenges when applying to colleges and starting a career, from a lack of financial support or exposure to rigorous academic opportunities to inadequate career coaching. These barriers can make it difficult for these students to establish themselves at top academic institutions and in competitive industries.

Through a data-driven, six-year academic and professional development program, Thrive Scholars invests in talented students before college and supports them as they transition into their careers. Our firm sponsors Thrive, which offers various forms of support to students including mentoring, instructional programs, financial aid, internships and networking opportunities. More than 90% of Thrive participants go on to attend Top 100 colleges, helping the next generation bring diverse perspectives to finance and tech.

Amid the growing crisis of COVID-19, our firm’s partners committed over $50 million to global relief and recovery. To accelerate international vaccine development, they supported the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and partnered with hospitals to fund critical COVID-19 research. They were also instrumental in architecting Operation Warp Speed’s life-saving vaccine development strategies to save hundreds of millions of lives. As our founder and CEO Ken Griffin emphasized, “Gearing up to manufacture vaccines without knowing whether they’d work was critical.”

Our partners supported humanitarian responses and worked with the U.S. State Department to repatriate 800 Americans from Wuhan, China.

Students who take AP Computer Science Principles in high school are more than 3 times as likely to major in computer science in college. Yet many students from low-income households lack access to computer science education, contributing to underrepresentation in fields that rely upon these skills.

With $2.75 million in support from our founder and CEO Ken Griffin, 500 more high schools across the United States will be able to offer AP Computer Science Principles. By bringing new students into these courses, we aim to broaden interest and participation in STEM fields among historically underrepresented students across the country.

For decades, Ukraine has sent teams of high school students to compete in prestigious International Olympiads in math and science. But after the war with Russia began in 2022, Ukrainian competitors faced immense obstacles. Schools closed, war-related power outages were common and the government could no longer provide vital funding for transportation, training and competition.

Our firm stepped in to sponsor Ukraine’s Informatics team, sending the team to the International Olympiad in 2022 in Indonesia. The team overcame extraordinary challenges to earn gold, silver and bronze medals—the most successful showing in Ukraine’s history. Our firm continues to sponsor the Informatics team to compete across Europe and internationally—providing critical funding for training camps and travel—and has expanded our support to also sponsor Ukraine’s Physics Olympiad and Astronomy Olympiad teams.

Lower-income and first-generation students are less likely to pursue higher education. When they do, talented students often navigate the college application process on their own—and may not realize the full range of opportunities available to them.

Matriculate is a peer-to-peer college advising group that serves students from lower-income families—many of whom are the first in their families to go to college. The program pairs these students with peer mentors from similar backgrounds at the nation’s most competitive colleges and universities. Students who are advised through Matriculate are 25% more likely to attend a top school than those who are not. With support from our firm, Matriculate is aiming to work with 10,000 students per class by 2030 and further bridge the gap between exemplary students and high-quality education.