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The Equitable Foundation, under the leadership of Jarian Kerekes, has been supporting educators and investing in college access in North Carolina and beyond in important ways.
Kerekes is especially good at saying both how can I help and thank you, which has earned him the respect of college attainment advocates as well as educators serving in classrooms, leading in schools, and working at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
In the spring, Equitable was in Cary in April and May at the celebrations for the North Carolina Teacher of the Year (TOY) and Principal of the Year (POY).
At the POY convening, Kerekes said, “We are really excited to celebrate you. We know as a principal you all set the tone in your schools. For all you do, we are really thankful.”
Over the summer, Kerekes led the foundation’s engagement with the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) on Ocracoke working with both cohorts of educator leaders and at the National Network of the State Teachers of the Year in Denver, Colorado. Equitable also welcomed the Teach for America North Carolina corps members to the campus for leadership development, and Kerekes delivered the keynote for San Diego State University’s Center for Equity and Postsecondary Attainment’s second annual National School Counselor Summit in San Diego, California.
This fall, you will see Equitable at DPI’s A.I.M. Conference in Raleigh. And that’s just a sampling of the stops for the foundation’s team.
Kerekes joined Equitable in October 2020, and day to day he leads the overall social impact strategy, partnership programs, and engagement of the foundation, all aligned to the company’s goals.
He calls the moment in time he joined the foundation a “social awakening” for the country, noting the need for “greater purpose, greater impact” at this “crucial moment in history.”
By late 2020, his community-informed changes to the social impact strategy had been approved by the company’s leadership, and in 2021, the foundation was “off to the races,” he says.
What is Equitable?
Equitable, a part of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH), has been one of America’s leading financial services providers since 1859, “with a distinct business model including financial advice, retirement, and asset management,” according to the 2023 annual report. A significant
portion of Equitable’s clients are teachers, and the company’s foundation focuses on supporting teachers inside and outside the classroom.
Equitable’s mission is “to help our clients secure their financial well-being so they can pursue long and fulfilling lives.” Kerekes highlights the “noble purpose” on a recent podcast of College & Career Reimagined.
“I can be an extension of that leading this foundation,” he says.
Equitable aspires to invest in people, care for the environment, build stronger communities, and uphold stakeholder trust.
According to the annual report, the Equitable Foundation has directed the company’s philanthropy and community service since 1986.
The company and foundation aspire to be a force for good. What does that mean? According to the annual report, “We believe that the more people we can get to actively engage, the bigger the multiplier effect we can create to drive positive change.”
“Equitable Foundation aligns with community-based organizations throughout the country that can activate with our people on a local level,” says the foundation’s website.
In 2023, Equitable Foundation provided $4.4 million in charitable grants to nonprofits, another $3.2 million through the matching gifts program, $1.3 million in academic scholarships, and 188 Equitable volunteers donated 6,500 hours. Here you can see a list of some of the investments in North Carolina.
The Equitable Excellence Scholarship® Program
The Equitable Excellence Scholarship® Program, which first started in 2003, “recognizes students who demonstrate ambition and self-drive to be a force for good in their school, local community, or work activities,” according to the foundation’s website. Since its inception, $30 million has been provided to 7,000 students to pursue postsecondary education opportunities.
“Expanding access and affordability to educational opportunities is a key factor in social mobility to help positively change a person’s future,” said Nick Lane, president of Equitable.
The Equitable Excellence Scholarship® is the flagship program of Equitable Foundation, and the annual scholarship aspires to create economic and social mobility for students from under-resourced backgrounds.
In 2024, according to a press release, Equitable awarded 100 scholarships for $5,000 to recipients that will be renewed each academic year for four years, for a total of $20,000. The company also awarded 100 one-time $2,500 scholarships that can underwrite immediate costs associated with higher education, such as tuition, textbooks, or fees.
In addition, all scholarship recipients identified a teacher who made a significant impact on their lives, and Equitable awarded the selected teachers with a $500 gift card for classroom supplies.
The scholarship includes ongoing support to help students during their first year of college, covering wellness, writing resumes, personal branding, and career exploration as well as peer networking opportunities and mentorship programs with the company’s employees and financial professionals.
“This is where our Equitable Excellence Scholarship really shines,” says Kerekes, “in going beyond financial support to providing emotional support and professional development and career readiness opportunities that can help students more easily navigate college and prepare them for careers after they graduate.”
Here you can see the 2024 recipients of the scholarship. Sixty-three percent of the 2024 recipients are first-generation college students, which represents a 7.5% increase from the prior year, and all scholarship recipients demonstrated financial need.
The leadership of Kerekes
By late 2023 and early 2024, Kerekes started showing up increasingly in the reporting of EdNC.
EdNC’s reporting on investments of the Equitable Foundation
While Equitable is headquartered in New York City, the largest share of Equitable employees reside in sister office locations of Charlotte and Syracuse.
“We really wanted to go deeper in those two communities,” says Kerekes, who lives in Charlotte and previously worked with Wells Fargo, TIAA, the NBA, and Michael Waltrip Racing.
Kerekes, who shares his personal story in many of his keynote addresses, grew up an inter-racial kid in a single-parent household in trailer parks in Blacksburg, Virginia, and while there was love from his dad, he says there wasn’t a lot of the support and guidance that he saw in his friends’ families.
“A lot of what I learned as far as applying for college and financing college was through mistakes,” says Kerekes. He says he struggled through high school and college, and so this work is personal to him.
“When I see students,” he says, “I can see it in their eyes. They don’t know what the future looks like.”
“I’ve lived it. It can be done,” he says of completing college and graduate school, noting that what was important to him about the higher education experience was the world view and exposure to new experiences and people he met there.
And Kerekes learned he had aspirations.
“Never in my biggest dreams did I think that I could live in New York City and work for a global sports league — and travel to China and Dubai and Barcelona — but it was at the NBA that I got involved in corporate social responsibility, and it was there I got to see the power of public-private partnerships making a difference in community.”
Of his own journey, Kerekes says, “I want that for every student that I’m in front of.”
Kerekes now serves on the board of directors of the National College Attainment Network (NCAN).
Investments in college access
Kerekes says his leadership on college access is the most rewarding part of his role.
Beyond funding for college, it has been important to Kerekes for Equitable to provide additional support to help more students access a postsecondary education, including:
College tours at 25 different schools, including historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly Black institutions, public universities, private and liberal arts schools, and community colleges.
College-prep workshops that focus on personal online branding and emotional wellness. The workshops also emphasize essay writing, which is an increasingly important vehicle for students to share their stories with prospective colleges and universities.
Workshops that help students complete the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. With changes and challenges to the BETTER FAFSA process, Equitable and its community partners offer workshops, one-on-one assistance and guidance for students and families to complete this important form. Students need to complete a FAFSA form in order to apply for federal student aid, such as grants, work-study funds and loans.
— Equitable press release
Investments in educators
Since Kerekes became president of the Equitable Foundation, he has focused the investments in educators on teacher recognition, the teacher pipeline, and teacher retention and professional development.
“I was inspired by educators in my life that pushed me and wanted more for me than my own family,” says Kerekes. “It’s powerful what educators can do for students.”
Maureen Stover, the 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC TOY and 2021 National TOY Finalist, met Kerekes at a Council of Chief State School Officers convening and first told him about the important work happening in North Carolina to support educators.
That conversation led to a grant by the Equitable Foundation to DPI, which invests in the annual A.I.M. conference for educators, the teacher leadership council (which has grown to 142 educators), the teacher working conditions survey, and the livestreaming of the TOY and POY celebrations.
DPI is the first state education agency to receive an investment from Equitable Foundation, but Kerekes hopes what he learns here can inform other investments in select states.
“We’re in this work for the long haul,” he says.
As he began to work more closely with educators, Kerekes knew that the wellness Equitable was investing in as a company could be important for educators, too.
Wellness matters, Kerekes believes, when it comes to teacher pipeline and retention.
Leah Marone is a psychotherapist and corporate wellness consultant. “In both corporate and educational settings,” she writes, “wellness is often put on the back burner.”
Thanks to the support of Kerekes and the foundation, Marone is now working with NC’s TOY and educators in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on the “critical importance of self-care, setting boundaries, and viewing transitions as opportunities for resets.”
Marone’s “Support, Don’t Solve” framework helps educators maintain healthy boundaries and honor their non-negotiables while leading with compassion, she says.
Her sessions with educators are designed to do more than share knowledge about mental health and wellness. Marone hopes to “inspire a culture of well-being and responsibility, both personally and within our communities.”
On the importance of showing up
One of his favorite sayings, says Kerekes, is “you live life forward and understand it backwards.”
“When you think about students navigating what life after high school looks like,” he says, “there are so many unknowns and there are so many challenges.”
Kerekes encourages students to “show up, and keep showing up, and keep giving your best.”
That’s his basic tenet for success.
“I can use my platform, I can use the company I represent,” Kerekes says, “to really make a positive difference in the many communities where the kids look like me or come from families like I did where you aren’t talking about stocks and bonds and careers, you’re just surviving.”
“This doesn’t have to be your life,” he tells the students when he sees himself in their eyes.
‘It is relational’
Kerekes shares a story about the first time he went to NCCAT on Ocracoke with the TOY in 2023. He arrived late after missing the ferry and found a sticky note on his door from 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC TOY Leah Carper inviting Kerekes to join the educators who were playing games late into the night.
“It disarmed me,” he says. “It felt like a little family. Everyone was hanging out.”
He gives Carper credit for giving him the vision of what the foundation’s investments could look like.
“It is relational,” he says.
And that’s why Kerekes continues to show up.
For more on the leadership of Jarian Kerekes, you can listen to this podcast, follow him on LinkedIn, and check out Equitable’s videos on YouTube.
To learn more about the Equitable Foundation, visit the website.
