Paving the path to higher education

Zachary and Roshell R. Rinkins are ensuring the future is bright for HBCU student scholars

Zachary Rinkins remembers the feeling of being young and ready—ready to learn, ready to better himself, and ready to make his family proud. He fondly remembers attending St. Matthews Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday mornings while growing up. Among the congregation were widows and women on fixed incomes who would press dollar bills into his hands and say, “Do your best, baby.”

For the Miami youth on the precipice of becoming one of the first in his family to attend college, the faith these neighbors had in him was the encouragement he needed to keep going when the road to graduation got tough. And, once he’d made it, those gestures were a strong reminder to keep the legacy going.

As he states it, “It’s now our responsibility to keep that hope alive for the next generation.” 

Rinkins and wife Roshell are doing just that. As proud graduates of Florida A&M University (FAMU), the country’s highest-ranked public historically Black college or university (HBCU) according to U.S. News and World Report, the couple has recommended a grant from their Fidelity Charitable Giving Account to create an endowed scholarship that will support countless business administration and journalism students for generations to come. 

“The future is bright at FAMU, but it doesn’t happen automatically. It takes the people who benefited from the institution to invest in its future,” says Zachary, a graduate of the university’s journalism program and living proof of that credo. President and CEO of his own multimedia organization and the public information officer at Broward County Animal Care, he’s proud to walk among the university’s renowned alumni network of pharmacists, dentists, and fellow business leaders.

“The world needs Rattlers,” he says, referring to FAMU’s mascot, “and we can’t let the world down.”

Giving smarter, not harder

Philanthropy is in their DNA, says Roshell, who has set aside a portion of her earnings for charity as far back as she can remember. Vice president of grants administration and chief diversity officer for the Knight Foundation, Roshell is known as a giving guru in her circle.

However, when she and Zachary entered the workforce in the early 2000s, the new graduates didn’t have the funds to give back in a big way. Their small donations and volunteer time were the most valuable assets they could give at that time. As their income grew, so did their giving. And when tax season rolled around, Roshell realized she didn’t always remember who or what charitable organization she had given to.

After Roshell learned about the benefits of the Giving Account from a colleague about five years ago, the couple immediately signed up and eventually created The Zachary R. Rinkins and Roshell Rosemond Rinkins Family Fund. Roshell has been a vocal supporter of the donor-advised fund to anyone who’ll listen. 

‘A vote of confidence’

Granting to multiple charities at once through their Giving Account, and therefore seeing their philanthropy in one spot, reminds the Rinkinses of who they are as people and where their legacy is headed.

“Fidelity Charitable just makes it easy for us to build our legacy in a professional way,” says Roshell. One of the benefits she’s proudest of is the potential interest generated by her Giving Account to give and do more. In fact, the couple used to walk around FAMU’s campus and wonder why someone would ever put their name on a building. Now, they know.

“It’s a vote of confidence in young people, like the votes I was given in my youth. Sisters Dora, Campbell, Johnson, and Moss believed in me,” Zachary says. “Someday, we want a building on FAMU’s campus to bear our name so future generations of Rattlers know we believe in them, too.”

He adds, “Many people in our community can be marginalized people on the fringes, so when you make this investment, it’s a continuation of the generosity of the people who believed in you.”

Roshell agrees. “They say you can tell what’s important to someone by looking at their balance sheet,” she says. If the Rinkinses’ balance sheet is any indicator, they are true Rattlers at heart—with the passion to help the next generation, the ambition to pave the path forward, and the plans to see it through.