MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Every Tuesday, as part of our Greater Memphis on a Mission series, we highlight organizations making Memphis better. This week, we caught up with a group that believes in the transformative power of insight, education, and financial literacy.
Lauren Sturden, 14, is a rising tenth-grader at Collierville High School. She bought her first share of stock in the American footwear company Crocs, with the help of her dad, when she was 12 years old.
“It’s going good,” Lauren said. “There was a time where it was kind of doing a little bad but then it went back up.”
She was interested in the stock market but didn’t know anything about it.
That’s when she joined From the Streets to Wall Street, a nonprofit organization that equips youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the financial landscape and unlock opportunities.
Pastor Gerald Kiner is the Executive Director.
“We inform students of opportunities beyond the streets to open up an entirely different world for them so that they can have options other than street life and a life of crime,” said Pastor Kiner.
He wants the mentees to know they don’t have to just be consumers of products around them. They can invest in companies and at a low cost. He was 21 when he first started.
“I saw something called Backyard Burger back then. Backyard Burger was $1. So you have stocks as little as a dollar. You have some hamburger stocks now that are $5 to $7,” said Pastor Kiner.
He also wants kids to be exposed to as many things as possible. That’s why he takes the mentees to nice restaurants and always takes the long route to get there. “I intentionally wanted them to go that far because I wanted them to see the different homes.”
Pastor Kiner continued, “Growing up in Orange Mound, we lived less than two miles from the Dixon Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens– never knew it existed.”
That is why exposure means so much to Pastor Kiner. He wants as many kids as possible to know there are options out there– including the stock market.
“It’s a very important learning experience– especially to young people because nobody my age really knows about the stock market,” Lauren said.
That is why Brown Missionary Baptist Church and the Midsouth Genesis CDC donated $1,000 to From the Streets to Wall Street because you truly don’t know a world exists unless you’re exposed to it.
For more information about the organization, click here.
