Emerson Fellow
Jade Adia Harvey
25th Class, 2018-2019
Born and raised in South Los Angeles, Jade graduated from Yale University with a degree in ethnicity, race & migration and human rights in 2017. After graduation, Jade served as a caseworker for homeless and home-insecure families before joining a high-need middle school in South Central LA through Americorps VISTA. At the middle school, Jade developed health and wellness-related programs and resources for students and families– 98% of whom live in poverty. To better serve the needs of her students and their families, Jade partnered with organizations to bring nutrition, violence prevention, and mental health workshops to the school; organized community health clinics; created the Boys 2 Men Mentorship Program; implemented Breakfast in the Classroom. Serving in the trenches of urban education and social work affirms her passion for offering families experiencing poverty the love and support that they deserve.
Field placement: United Way of King County
Seattle, Washington
Jade worked with United Way of King County’s “Benefits Hub”: a branch of the organization that partners with community and technical colleges in the Seattle/King County area to provide services such as financial coaching, financial aid completion assistance, and housing support to students. In her role, Jade worked on expanding United Way’s suite of financial intervention services to include an innovative matched savings program to build financial resilience among low-income students and students of color. Jade met with stakeholders as well as organizational and financial partners to research, design, and implement a pilot focused on reducing barriers for students to build essential savings in support of educational persistence and completion.
Policy placement: Poverty & Race Research Action Council
Washington, DC
Hunger Free Community Report
"Addressing Financial Barriers to Completion for Low-Income Students" outlines an opportunity for United Way of King County's Benefits Hub to offer new financial interventions to support low-income community college students. Its purpose is to evaluate the potential impact of the "Save2Build" credit-building and matched savings pilot on student persistence and completion and to provide guidelines and recommendations for its implementation.