Financial Motivator: Student Freedom Initiative is helping HBCU STEM Students."

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Mark Brown, the President and CEO of SFI. Student Freedom Initiative is a nonprofit organization founded by Robert F.

Smith because of his philanthropic efforts to tackle the student debt problem in America. SFI was founded in 2022 as a follow-up to the 2019 viral Morehouse College gift.

The program offers alternative PLUS Loan opportunities for students majoring in STEM at participating HBCUs. The fund was initially started with a $50M investment from Robert F.

Smith along with a $50M investment from InternXL, which partners with SFI to build an endowment without walls. SFI recently announced a $100M commitment from the STEIN Bridge group, bringing the endowment to $200M.

The funds used to repay these loans are recycled into the SFA fund for another HBCU/MSI student Support the show: See for privacy information.