Harlem Junior Tennis & Education Program students visit Morgan Stanley headquarters

When a group of students from the Harlem Junior Tennis & Education Program (HJTEP) walked through the doors of Morgan Stanley’s New York headquarters this October, they brought with them something that no financial textbook could teach -- the discipline, resilience, and competitive spirit that tennis instills from a young age.

What awaited them on the other side was a day designed to show them that those same qualities have a place far beyond the baseline.

Now in its fourth year, the partnership between the WTA Foundation, Morgan Stanley and HJTEP has become a meaningful annual moment, one that reflects the WTA Foundation’s core belief that tennis can be a powerful gateway to opportunity. Senior leaders at Morgan Stanley opened their doors and their stories, sharing lessons learned, career journeys and the kind of honest, anecdotal advice that rarely makes it into a classroom.

Students participated in financial education sessions and connected with employees across the organization -- not as students of a world out of reach, but as young people being actively invited and included in another area of their broader community.

The WTA Foundation was built on Billie Jean King’s conviction that sport is a vehicle for social change, and that the visibility and influence of women’s tennis should be used to open doors for girls who might not otherwise see themselves in rooms like the ones they walked into at Morgan Stanley.

For many of the students, the visit was a glimpse at a career in finance, business or sports, and a reminder that the skills they are developing on the court are exactly the skills the world’s leading institutions are looking for. The message from every leader in the room was the same: you belong here.