Two dozen high school seniors, predominantly from Oakland, gave up their Saturday mornings the past six months to spend time in a classroom on the campus of UC Berkeley learning about personal finance, investing and wealth creation.
This past Saturday (Feb. 10), they wrapped up their final class and in a celebration before family and friends received certificates for completing the Economic Equity and Financial Education Program. Each student also earned an $8,000 college scholarship from PG&E and The PG&E Corporation Foundation (PG&E Foundation) to help them invest in their education.
This is now the second class of students to successfully complete this unique academic program that accepted its first cohort in fall 2022. Three quarters of this year’s graduating class are female and most of the students are Black.
One of the students is 17-year-old Erikah Washington, a student at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, who said she was grateful for what she learned.
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“Through this program I have gained so much confidence and no longer view finances as something scary. With the knowledge obtained from the program I know I will make good financial decisions moving forward,” she said.
PG&E’s Jimi Harris with student Daisy Fountaine, one of the recent program graduates.
PG&E created the program after two years of planning as a racial justice initiative following the George Floyd tragedy to help address economic challenges faced by African Americans. PG&E and The PG&E Foundation provided more than $500,000 in funding through its community charitable Better Together Giving Program to the program each year. This program is one of several funded by PG&E and The PG&E Foundation that provide support and scholarships to students throughout PG&E’s service area as they pursue their higher education goals. Funding for the comes from PG&E shareholders, not PG&E customers.
Together, they partnered with the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and Berkeley Executive Education, Mills College at Northeastern University, and Amenti Capital Group for the program that helped prepare the students from Oakland and the Greater Bay Area for future both financial success and academic leadership.
Students took courses taught by Haas professors and financial industry professionals on topics including personal finance, capital markets and wealth creation, financial data analysis and investments — topics foreign to most of the teens. African American Haas undergraduates also served as mentors to the students.
After launching in late 2022, the program saw its first 24-student graduate in May of 2023. Otis Ward was one of them and he shared his journey in the PG&E short film “Change the System: Building Black Wealth.” Ward is currently studying computer science and engineering at Stanford University.
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On Saturday, 24 more students were celebrated.
PG&E’s Vincent Davis, senior vice president of Customer Experience, stressed to the students the importance of education and never giving up.
Speakers included those who taught the students, like Panos Patatoukas from Haas School of Business and Jason Miles, an African American venture capitalist with more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and founder of Amenti Capital Group. They commended the students and talked about what they could achieve.
Hard facts were also flashed on a screen during the event, including: “In 2022, the median Black household had a net worth of $44,900, less than 15% of the median net worth of white households at $285,000” and, “The wealth gap was roughly the same in 2016 as it was in 1962, two years before the Civil Rights Act was enacted.” It was to remind the students of why what they learned was important to make a change.
PG&E’s Vincent Davis, senior vice president of Customer Experience, was one of the speakers at the graduation. He stressed the importance of education, talked about his early career as an accountant and overcoming self-doubt to find success.
After the event, he said he was impressed by the students and optimistic at what they could accomplish.
“My intentions were to inspire and support them. As good fortune would have it, I was also inspired because I saw firsthand the endless possibilities of their bright futures,” said Davis.
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The program was conceived by PG&E Community Relations Chief Jimi Harris, also one of the graduation speakers. He said it was exciting to see another class of students complete the program and “to partner with a premier academic institution like the University of California at Berkley to provide this opportunity to these exceptional young scholars.”
He said he was proud to see another group of students complete the program and gain critical knowledge and hoped the program could encourage similar curriculum in schools.
Said Harris: “I am confident that this program will help set these students up for success with their future academic and financial endeavors. Additionally, there is a growing demand for financial education to be more broadly available for students in California, and hopefully this program will serve as a model to create more access to this type of educational content.”
Cornell University administrator Warren Petrofsky will serve as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ new dean of administration and finance, charged with spearheading efforts to shore up the school’s finances as it faces a hefty budget deficit.
Petrofsky’s appointment, announced in a Friday email from FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra to FAS affiliates, will begin April 20 — nearly a year after former FAS dean of administration and finance Scott A. Jordan stepped down. Petrofsky will replace interim dean Mary Ann Bradley, who helped shape the early stages of FAS cost-cutting initiatives.
Petrofsky currently serves as associate dean of administration at Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
As dean, he oversaw a budget cut of nearly $11 million to the institution’s College of Arts and Sciences after the federal government slashed at least $250 million in stop-work orders and frozen grants, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.
He also serves on a work group established in November 2025 to streamline the school’s administrative systems.
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Earlier, at the University of Pennsylvania, Petrofsky managed capital initiatives and organizational redesigns in a number of administrative roles.
Petrofsky is poised to lead similar efforts at the FAS, which relaunched its Resources Committee in spring 2025 and created a committee to consolidate staff positions amid massive federal funding cuts.
As part of its planning process, the committee has quietly brought on external help. Over several months, consultants from McKinsey & Company have been interviewing dozens of administrators and staff across the FAS.
Petrofsky will also likely have a hand in other cost-cutting measures across the FAS, which is facing a $365 million budget deficit. The school has already announced it will keep spending flat for the 2026 fiscal year, and it has dramatically reduced Ph.D. admissions.
In her email, Hoekstra praised Petrofsky’s performance across his career.
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“Warren has emphasized transparency, clarity in communication, and investment in staff development,” she wrote. “He approaches change with steadiness and purpose, and with deep respect for the mission that unites our faculty, researchers, staff, and students. I am confident that he will be a strong partner to me and to our community.”
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at amannsm.38. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.
My spreadsheet reviewed a WalletHub ranking of financial distress for the residents of 100 U.S. cities, including 17 in California. The analysis compared local credit scores, late bill payments, bankruptcy filings and online searches for debt or loans to quantify where individuals had the largest money challenges.
When California cities were divided into three geographic regions – Southern California, the Bay Area, and anything inland – the most challenges were often found far from the coast.
The average national ranking of the six inland cities was 39th worst for distress, the most troubled grade among the state’s slices.
Bakersfield received the inland region’s worst score, ranking No. 24 highest nationally for financial distress. That was followed by Sacramento (30th), San Bernardino (39th), Stockton (43rd), Fresno (45th), and Riverside (52nd).
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Southern California’s seven cities overall fared better, with an average national ranking of 56th largest financial problems.
However, Los Angeles had the state’s ugliest grade, ranking fifth-worst nationally for monetary distress. Then came San Diego at 22nd-worst, then Long Beach (48th), Irvine (70th), Anaheim (71st), Santa Ana (85th), and Chula Vista (89th).
Monetary challenges were limited in the Bay Area. Its four cities average rank was 69th worst nationally.
San Jose had the region’s most distressed finances, with a No. 50 worst ranking. That was followed by Oakland (69th), San Francisco (72nd), and Fremont (83rd).
The results remind us that inland California’s affordability – it’s home to the state’s cheapest housing, for example – doesn’t fully compensate for wages that typically decline the farther one works from the Pacific Ocean.
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A peek inside the scorecard’s grades shows where trouble exists within California.
Credit scores were the lowest inland, with little difference elsewhere. Late payments were also more common inland. Tardy bills were most difficult to find in Northern California.
Bankruptcy problems also were bubbling inland, but grew the slowest in Southern California. And worrisome online searches were more frequent inland, while varying only slightly closer to the Pacific.
Note: Across the state’s 17 cities in the study, the No. 53 average rank is a middle-of-the-pack grade on the 100-city national scale for monetary woes.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
The up-and-coming fintech scored a pair of fourth-quarter beats.
Diversified fintech Chime Financial(CHYM +12.88%) was playing a satisfying tune to investors on Thursday. The company’s stock flew almost 14% higher that trading session, thanks mostly to a fourth quarter that featured notably higher-than-expected revenue guidance.
Sweet music
Chime published its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results just after market close on Wednesday. For the former period, the company’s revenue was $596 million, bettering the same quarter of 2024 by 25%. The company’s strongest revenue stream, payments, rose 17% to $396 million. Its take from platform-related activity rose more precipitously, advancing 47% to $200 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meanwhile, Chime’s net loss under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) more than doubled. It was $45 million, or $0.12 per share, compared with a fourth-quarter 2024 deficit of $19.6 million.
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On average, analysts tracking the stock were modeling revenue below $578 million and a deeper bottom-line loss of $0.20 per share.
In its earnings release, Chime pointed to the take-up of its Chime Card as a particular catalyst for growth. Regarding the product, the company said, “Among new member cohorts, over half are adopting Chime Card, and those members are putting over 70% of their Chime spend on the product, which earns materially higher take rates compared to debit.”
Today’s Change
(12.88%) $2.72
Current Price
$23.83
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Key Data Points
Market Cap
$7.9B
Day’s Range
$22.30 – $24.63
52wk Range
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$16.17 – $44.94
Volume
562K
Avg Vol
3.3M
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Gross Margin
86.34%
Double-digit growth expected
Chime management proffered revenue and non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) guidance for full-year 2026. The company expects to post a top line of $627 million to $637 million, which would represent at least 21% growth over the 2024 result. Adjusted EBITDA should be $380 million to $400 million. No net income forecasts were provided in the earnings release.
It isn’t easy to find a niche in the financial industry, which is crowded with companies offering every imaginable type of service to clients. Yet Chime seems to be achieving that, as the Chime Card is clearly a hit among the company’s target demographic of clientele underserved by mainstream banks. This growth stock is definitely worth considering as a buy.
