When Taborah Tyson takes high school students on tours of the TD Securities trading floor, she watches the personalities of the teenagers emerge.
After seeing the floor in action and talking to a few traders, the students typically come away feeling invigorated — or overwhelmed.
“When they come back from the trading floor there's a buzz in the room. People are saying it’s amazing, or so cool. Or others, like me, find it really overstimulating,” said Tyson, a Human Resources Specialist at the Bank.
“We just want them to see what a career in capital markets is really like versus how it is depicted in a TV show or a movie.”
The students on the tour are enrolled in TD Talent Lab, a volunteer-run program in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) designed to increase awareness of career opportunities for teenagers from backgrounds typically underrepresented in the financial sector. Tyson leads the program.
Young people are often making big decisions that impact their future at a time where entry-level opportunities are less predictable, and expectations around skills are rapidly changing. Programs like TD Talent Lab help provide exposure to different career paths at a critical time.
Experiencing the trading floor, particularly for students who don’t typically see themselves represented in those TV shows or movies that depict the finance industry, can be a life-changing experience, she said.
For some, it’s the first step towards becoming a high-powered securities trader. For others, it may steer them towards a less adrenaline-heavy but equally rewarding career path within banking.
Either way, Tyson loves helping teens imagine a financial career they might want to pursue — before they even begin their post-secondary education.
“Touring a trading floor really doesn’t happen very often for people that age,” Tyson said. “They really get to see what it means to be a trader.”
Nurturing future talent for the financial sector
TD Securities launched TD Talent Lab in 2021. The program is powered by TD colleagues who volunteer to provide students with early exposure and guidance to the financial sector.
Conceived as an after-school club, the program acts as a sort of pre-internship program, Tyson said. It gives students meaningful, hands-on financial education that could help them make informed decisions about their post-secondary options.
The first portion of TD Talent Lab typically runs for eight to 10 sessions from September to April and is open to Grade 11 and 12 students in the GTA. Tyson and her team of volunteers engage students through specific community groups such as the Pathways to Education program in Rexdale, the MINA Project, and the Toronto District School Board’s Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement or the Scarborough YWCA.
Participants in the program then have the opportunity to apply for internships in TD Securities and a scholarship.
“We saw an opportunity to ensure we have individuals with different lived experiences coming into the Bank, specifically through TD Securities,” Tyson said. “Getting students in Grades 11 and 12 and letting them hear from professionals and see where they started.”
In addition to the trading floor visit, TD Talent Lab sessions teach students about financial literacy and practical professional and networking skills, like how to draft a cover letter or request a coffee chat. Tyson and her fellow volunteer mentors also support students with applications for summer internships with TD Securities, meticulously walking them through the process.
While only a handful of internships are available for the 60 to 70 participants who submit applications every year, Tyson does her best to make sure the program has real value for the students who are not chosen for summer internships.
“Even if they don’t get an internship, they are still learning tangible skills that they can use in the rest of their lives,” she said.
Why volunteering to mentor the next generation matters
Tyson said the fact that TD Talent Lab is run by volunteers shows how passionate she and her fellow mentors are about the work.
“Programs like The TD Talent Lab can’t exist without volunteers,” she said. “We are fortunate to have a network of passionate volunteers that deliver sessions, share their experiences, and mentor the students throughout the program and beyond.”
Tyson's own career at TD started in a community branch as a Customer Experience Associate. She worked in a variety of other departments, including TD Securities, before landing in her current role in human resources.
She was drawn to TD Talent Lab because of the layered sense of community it creates – bringing together colleagues, employee networks, communities, and students. She continues to volunteer because she has seen firsthand the impact the program has on students’ confidence and direction – and because she wishes a program like this had existed when she was younger.
Tyson is more than 18 years into a rewarding career with TD, but she missed her own opportunity to go to university as a young person, in part because she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to pursue.
Her hope is that the students she works with will find smoother paths to success.
“If there was a program like this when I was younger, I probably would have realized that I wanted to work in banking much earlier and I would have been more intentional throughout high school,” she said.
“Knowing that I could have had a part-time job at a bank or potentially even gotten a scholarship like the TD Securities Shooting Star Scholarship, would have made attending post secondary that much more accessible to me.”
Watching her mentees 'knocking it out of the park'
Tyson recalls an exceptional TD Talent Lab student who entered the program with plans to study engineering at university. While the student initially balked at the idea of applying for the summer internship — since it was at odds with what she thought she wanted to study — she was eventually selected as an intern and her experience during the internship helped her realize a financial sector career was her true calling.
The student is now in university and continuing to intern with TD Securities in investment banking, which is highly competitive and could lead to a lucrative career, Tyson said.
"This student is knocking it out of the park," she said.
Students who participate in the program often keep in touch with Tyson and her team, some later landing other internships in TD Securities, demonstrating the long-term impact volunteering and mentoring can have.
Wherever they may end up, Tyson is just happy to get these young go-getters through the door and interested in a future in banking.
“To see their growth and their development over time is just amazing,” she said. “I know how valuable it is. I know what a difference it makes for the students who participate – and it wouldn’t be possible without the volunteers that make this program a reality.”