Bank of America Announces 2024 Iowa Student Leaders

IOWA – Two Des Moines rising seniors, Nanees Akabar from Theodore Roosevelt High School and Frise Mukina from North High School, spent their summers participating in a prestigious paid summer internship program working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa this summer to help serve youth and families in central Iowa, all while gaining practical work and leadership experience. These community-minded students have gained practical work and leadership experience while receiving financial education coaching from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits curriculum and working with local nonprofits while earning competitive wages.

Nanees is involved in several organizations, including the City of Des Moines Youth Advisory Board and Iowa Youth Congress. She also serves as her school’s Speech and Debate captain and National Honor Society president. 

Frise was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to the U.S in 2015. She is involved in several organizations including Simpson College Upward Bound, the Black Student Union and Youth Leadership Initiative.

Celebrating its 20^th anniversary year, the Student Leaders program annually connects more than 300 community-minded high school juniors and seniors from nearly 100 communities to employment, skills development and service. In addition to the eight-week paid internship, the students received financial education and participated in a national leadership summit in Washington, D.C., to see how nonprofits, governments and businesses collaborate to meet local needs.

Since the program’s launch in Iowa in 2019, ten Iowa students have participated in the program at local nonprofits like Urban Dreams and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa, helping to build the leaders of tomorrow right here in our community, for our community.

“Preparing a diverse pipeline of community-minded young students to be successful in the workforce is critical to Iowa’s long-term economic growth,” said Heidi Parkhurst, president, Bank of America Iowa. “The exceptional teens selected for the Student Leaders program will not only gain practical work and life experience, but the community in return gains help from local nonprofits and a diverse pipeline of talent as these young adults enter the local workforce.”

The Student Leaders program has recognized nearly 4,500 students from across the country and invested $42 million into more than 500 local nonprofits. This is a critical part of the bank’s long-standing effort to build pathways to economic mobility across nearly 100 markets since the program’s beginning in 2004.