Staff Highlight: Maria Lopes

A Financial Counselor shares how changing careers led to her true passion

“I can genuinely help people and see the difference that I’m making.” — Maria Lopes

Before joining Urban Upbound last January, Maria Lopes had been working in a bank for eight years. While working in the financial sector had been her calling, when expected to push credit cards to people who could not afford it, she wanted a career shift. But Maria’s transition into the nonprofit industry was not an easy one. “At first, it was difficult,” she confessed. She saw many differences, especially in work culture, strategy, and structure. “At Urban Upbound, I had to think of a different engagement strategy and about how I reach out to my potential clients. In a bank, you have a script and you don’t go outside of that.”

In recounting her first experience organizing a financial literacy workshop in Astoria Houses, Maria said, “People were telling me that they were going to come. But, on the day of the workshop, no one was there.” This experience did not discourage her. Within a year, Maria has been able to beat the odds in a program that had long been a struggle for other counselors.

Maria is active and creative in her approach to helping clients achieve their financial goals. She makes financial literacy an interesting subject by creating relatable games, using index cards, and generally making it fun to learn. Maria loves her current role, as she becomes more involved with her clients, helping them with their financial decisions as well as in other aspects of their life. Despite having to make drastic adjustments from her usual banking strategy, she admitted that working at Urban Upbound is much more rewarding for her. “I can genuinely help people and see the difference that I’m making.”