Destiny Nelson-Miles Graduates College 2 Years Early As Birmingham’s First Promise Scholar

Destiny Nelson-Miles, 19, graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as the city’s first Promise Scholar after being on campus for only two years.

Nelson-Miles’s success is a result of her hard work and the completion of the Early College Program when was a student at Woodlawn High School. The Early College Program is a dual enrollment program that allows students to take college courses while finishing high school. The young student entered the university as a junior with 69 college credits.

“Young people like Destiny Nelson-Miles are the reason my office initially launched Birmingham Promise, and why the Birmingham City Council and I continue to support this program,” Mayor Randall L. Woodfin told the Birmingham Times. “With partners like UAB, we are removing barriers and allowing our young people to achieve their dreams and fulfill their potential.”

Inside the classroom at UAB, Nelson-Miles’ academic interests found her exploring leadership roles and researching business topics.

“The finance program at UAB is awesome,” Nelson-Miles said. “It gives a lot of opportunities to explore the many different disciplines in finance. Collat (School of Business) does a really good job of getting finance majors hands-on experience.”

She conducted research at the Region Institute for Financial Education for Professor Stephanie Yates on The Effects of Purchasing Power on Cryptocurrency Usage. Miles’ research won first place in the business category at UAB’s Undergraduate Research Expo.

Nelson-Miles also excelled as a member of Beta Alpha Psi, the Financial Management Association at UAB, the National Association of Black Accountants, and the Green and Gold Fund.

“It was an eye-opening experience to see how research can truly impact how we make decisions,” Nelson-Miles recalled.

“I learned a lot and dove deeper into finance through these experiences, and I had a lot of fun,” Nelson-Miles said. “I was very curious about financial management, and as a financial analyst for the utilities sector of the Green and Gold Fund, I learned many useful lessons about investments by exploring different companies.”

As an intern at Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Nelson-Miles helped with financial operations. She also prepared and organized financial reports for annual audits and researched market opportunities for newly earned revenue initiatives.

Despite the success inside the classroom, it was a challenge for Miles to create a social network while on campus. To meet the challenge, Nelson-Miles served as a mentor as a Collat Scholar, assisted incoming freshmen to get comfortable on campus, and served as a tutor for on-campus students living.

In June, Nelson-Miles will begin a full-time job as an analyst at Regions Bank.