Nitiya is the founder and Executive Director of Seeds of Fortune, a non-profit and EdTech platform to help young women of colour through their college applications process and scholarships, as well as provide them with financial education and career development skills. By 2036, over half of all college graduates in the United States will be people of colour, but only 8% of higher education institutions currently have equitable student representation and support programmes. Originally launched as a scholarship programme in New York City in 2014, Seeds of Fortune developed its digital platform to expand its reach.
Nitiya attended the One Young World Summit in Munich 2021, which allowed her to share the story and struggle of access to higher education for underrepresented groups in the United States. She developed strong connections, particularly with other American Ambassadors, which helped her expand the scholarship programmes Seeds of Fortune offers. Nitiya also established a partnership with Verizon, creating an internship programme for young women of colour. She received $25,000 from One Young World in partnership with the Brandtech Group as part of the Rebuilding Communities Fund, which helped fund her Fall College Prep Programming. Due to this funding, 30 high schoolers were sponsored to participate in an intensive college preparatory programme with Yale Women in Economics.
The Seeds of Fortune platform has helped over 2,500 women in the college application process, with 243 students receiving approximately $30,000,000 in scholarships and funding as a result of their work. The platform includes financial literacy advice for both students and parents, modulistic training on essay-writing, scholarships, application processes, choosing the right schools and subjects, and leadership development programmes. Seeds of Fortune has also hosted events in major US cities.
“Attending the Summit had a very tangible impact on my project, I had fellow Ambassadors join Seeds of Fortune as volunteers and I established a partnership with Verizon and the Brandtech Group.”
