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The effort, called Black & Positively Golden, shows how the chain aims to deepen its ties with African-American customers, particularly millennials.

Florida A&M University (FAMU) team wins 1st place prize. The students also participated in mentoring and financial literacy sessions, in addition to pitching their solutions for critical areas in the city of Detroit to an expert panel of judges that included Big Sean, founder of The Sean Anderson Foundation.

‘Moguls in the Making’ promotes financial literacy among students from historically black colleges and universities.

The entertainer’s nonprofit, the Sean Anderson Foundation, has partnered with Ally Financial and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to host the contest. The program, which started Friday and ended Sunday night, gave students from historically black colleges and universities nationwide an opportunity to plan, develop and present a business plan in front of their peers and a panel of judges. In between preparing for their presentations, students participated in sessions on financial literacy, idea pitching, and building a business model.

Today, student loan debt is the second greatest source of individual debt, only behind mortgages, according to the Federal Reserve. Something must be done about the ever-rising student debt, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is taking the issue of financial literacy with HBCU students head-on.

This partnership, which officially began with the signing of a memorandum of understand on March 29, will strive to provide resources to those schools to encourage faculty and student STEM research.