Outlier.org, Urban Assembly, and New York City Public Schools are announcing a groundbreaking collaboration aimed at expanding access to financial accounting education for high school students in the New York area.
400 NYC public school students will have the opportunity to enroll in Outlier.org’s highly regarded Intro to Financial Accounting college course. These students will earn college credit and gain valuable skills and insights into what a future career could look like in the field of accounting. Urban Assembly, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public school students’ social and economic mobility, will serve as implementation leaders within New York City Public Schools to drive student awareness, school execution, and success of the program this fall.
“At Urban Assembly, we believe in providing students with opportunities for career-connected learning that allows them to gain real-world skills while they’re still in high school,” said David Adams, Chief Executive Officer at Urban Assembly.With generous support from the Deloitte Foundation , Urban Assembly will be able to contribute to a reimagined student experience that opens doors to promising careers.”
According to the AICPA 2021 Trends Report, only 2% of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are Black and 5% are Hispanic/Latinx despite significant job opportunities across the sector. By providing access to top-tier educational resources in high school, this initiative seeks to empower students and create a more diverse and inclusive workforce in the accounting industry.
“I teach accounting through the lens of fraud and true crime to show students the side of this industry that is exciting and requires true grit and skill,” said Kelly Richmond Pope, a world-renowned accounting professor at DePaul University and the course’s lead lecturer. “New York City high school students will get access to a top quality online learning experience on Outlier.org alongside hands-on support and oversight from faculty in their school.”
Leveraging Outlier.org’s best-in-class high school dual enrollment course experience, 400 select juniors and seniors will participate in a year-long elective course built into the standard New York City Public School schedule that counts toward their high school diploma, while also earning three college credits to transfer into an undergraduate degree from Outlier.org’s accreditation partner University of Pittsburgh, a top 50 university. Students will learn the basics of accounting from Pope with additional classroom oversight from an on-site faculty member and have access to 24/7 academic support and unlimited 1-on-1 tutoring via Outlier.org.
“This collaboration with Urban Assembly and New York City Public Schools directly furthers Outlier.org’s mission to increase access to high quality higher education,” said Aaron Rasmussen, CEO and Founder of Outlier.org. “We look forward to piloting this program in New York so that it can be replicated in school districts across the country.”
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