A first-generation college student is paying it forward, literally

08/22/23 • 22 min

On the latest episode of "Inside the Circles," Mastercard’s podcast about the future of work and the topics of now, host Latoya Bennett-Johnson chats with Thompson, a two-time intern at Mastercard who is now an account management director for North America, about her career journey and her passion for uplifting her community.

Brianna Thompson grew up mere miles from the opulent playgrounds of Hamptons, but her hometown of Hampton Bays is working class, and she was the first generation in her family to attend college. Mindful of the sobering statistics about low-income first-generation college students — only 11% complete their degree within six years — she established an annual scholarship at her high school for these students.

That was only five years after she herself graduated from high school. Thompson started working at Mastercard upon graduation from Baruch College with a bachelor's in business administration and quickly advanced while working toward her MBA. But immediately after being hired, she starting thinking about how she could help other first-generation college students gain confidence and continue their education.

With her signing bonus, she created a self-funded scholarship to be awarded to a Hampton Bays High School graduate who would also be a first-generation college student, and she continues to fund the award every year. After being named one of Mastercard's volunteers of the year through the company's CEO Force for Good Awards, she was able to fund five scholarships with a donation from the company. Tune in to their insightful chat...

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Pride 2023: A lesson on being an authentic leader in the workplace

On the latest episode of “Inside the Circles,” Mastercard’s podcast about the future of work and the topics of now, host Latoya Bennett-Johnson sat down with Chad Wallace, who is the executive vice president and global head of Commercial Solutions. After a robust career with Goldman Sachs and Capital One, Wallace joined Mastercard a little over a year ago to lead the company’s commercial and B2B businesses, including product, engineering, and sales.

Three years ago, on National Coming Out Day, Wallace penned a letter to his younger self. He had written the draft ten times before he felt comfortable with it. After years, both in his youth and early career, of being reserved and keeping his cards close to his chest, Wallace was ready to raise his voice and put it all out there – the experiences he had growing up as a young gay man in rural Tennessee, the evolving relationships with his family and what it means to show up as your authentic self in your personal and professional life.

Wallace reflects on his letter and all that has occurred in his life that led him to writing it. “Even in some of the toughest things through my life, there were really good things that ended up happening because of that,” says Wallace. “I think I’m a better person at the end of the day because of the things that I went through during my childhood and upbringing.”