Gamaliel Jimenez Wants a Career Planning Financial Futures

Last summer, Gamaliel Jimenez spent time researching the used-car market and crunching the numbers on monthly payments and interest rates for his brother, Ezequiel. It was one example of a time when he knew he was on the right path.

“It was really fun, bringing him along on that journey — explaining the supply and demand, why it’s a tough market right now,” Jimenez says.

Jimenez is a University of Arizona senior in the Personal and Family Financial Planning Program at the John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His planned career places him at the intersection of business and service to his community, right where he wants to be.

His passion for helping others made Jimenez the university’s inaugural Charles Schwab Foundation endowed scholarship recipient. The $3.5 million scholarship program was established by the global financial services company in spring 2021 to serve students from underrepresented communities. UArizona is one of seven institutions where the company offers the scholarship.

The program is providing Jimenez with about $10,000 as well as mentorship from a Charles Schwab representative and an invitation to apply for an internship at the company. “I don’t have the words to explain what it means to be recognized,” Jimenez says.

“I’m just glad there are resources out there to help low-income, first-generation students pursue a career.”

Jimenez came to UArizona on a Dorrance Scholarship. He began as a prebusiness major in the Eller College of Management and switched majors after learning about the Personal and Family Financial Planning Program from Richard Rosen, an associate professor of practice in the Norton School and chair of the program. 

Last summer, Jimenez received unexpected good news: Rosen had nominated him for the Schwab scholarship, and he’d had been selected.

“I didn't know what to say,” Jimenez says. “It was out of nowhere.”

Jimenez easily met all the  requirements for the nomination, says Rosen. But it was his character that made him an obvious candidate. “He’s one of the most respectful young adults I’ve ever run across — that’s what I appreciate about him,” Rosen says.

Jimenez would like to eventually open his own firm, particularly one that assists low-income communities. He also sees a duty to one day pay forward the support he is receiving.

“Since the university is giving me resources to be successful, and Dorrance and Charles Schwab are giving me these scholarships, I have to do my part, too.”