This year, the Howard University and PNC Center for Entrepreneurship (HUPNC) is expanding its mission to empower pathways to entrepreneurship for the next generation of business leaders, fueled in part by a new contribution from financial data analytics company FICO.

Founded in 2023 through a $16.8 million grant from the PNC Foundation and headquartered in Howard’s School of Business, the Center is a national consortium and resource hub, training aspiring entrepreneurs at Howard and around the country. Through initiatives like the Startup Scholars Program and HBCU Consulting Lab, the Center provides support and mentorship to students across a network of over 101 HBCUs, and has reached over 6,000 program participants, including 2,500 students. 

With the latest support from FICO, the Center is looking to expand its offerings, including its cornerstone conference the HBCU Entrepreneurship Empowerment Summit. Held in Washington, D.C., the annual event brings HBCU students and faculty together with investors, CEOs, and others from across the nation, providing an invaluable opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to network, hone their ideas, and gain insights from business leaders making an impact today. 

“This will provide even further depth to the programs that we already have, includingour national conference,” said HUPNC National Executive Director Johnny Graham, Ph.D. “Funding will provide  more opportunity for students toattend the national conference for free in June. It also gives the opportunity to offer more resources and capacity for HBCUs around the country to incorporate personal finance education into their programming.”

The gift is just the latest collaboration between Howard and FICO, which was also a major sponsor of last year’s Empowerment Summit. The Center will also incorporate curricula from the FICO Score a Better Future Program — which includes workshops and tools to provide financial literacy and FICO score education— into its own programs. 

Ultimately, success for us looks like stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems where education is paired with real-world tools and insights that help individuals build sustainable futures.

“We’re incorporating FICO’s “Score A Better Future” credit and financial education curriculum to make sure the entrepreneurs that we’re impacting have not only the tools they need to be successful entrepreneurs, but to also manage their personal and business finances,” said Graham. “That includes workshops in our Dreams to Dollars Academy, which is a national program for entrepreneurs in the community, incorporation in our Prime Incubator Program, which is specifically for student entrepreneurs around the country, along with workshops at some of our regional centers around the country.”

The Center has also been working to roll out a FICO Fellowship program, which would train faculty and staff to implement co-curricular and extracurricular personal financial education opportunities designed alongside FICO. 

“The FICO Fellows program is designed to embed credit education directly into entrepreneurship programming, meeting people where they are and equipping them with knowledge they can use immediately in both personal and business decision-making,” said Rukiya Kelly, FICO head of Corporate Impact and Engagement. “More broadly, we hope to deepen understanding of how credit works, why it matters, and how informed financial choices can support economic mobility over time. Ultimately, success for us looks like stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems where education is paired with real-world tools and insights that help individuals build sustainable futures.”

The Center already has an exciting line-up of events for the new semester — including the second cohort of the Prime Incubator program, which began Monday, Jan. 26, as well as Howard University Entrepreneurship Week (March 23-27) and the spring 2026 HBCU Consulting Lab, this year being led by the Southeast Regional Center at Clark Atlanta University. Investments, like this one from FICO, help to ensure these vital programs continue to teach the next generation of entrepreneurs.