COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 3, 2026--
For the second consecutive year, a four-student team from Fisk University took the top prize in the 2026 #IYKYK Pitch Competition (If You Know, You Know) for their idea to amplify Experian’s Big Financial Friend campaign, sponsored by Experian and HomeFree-USA.
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Nicknamed Team F2, Hannah Daniel, Habeebah Dawodu, Remi Adeshina, and Kanchan Thapa earned a $40,000 prize for their presentation, “FinCheck.” A social-first campaign inspired by the viral “fit check” trend, the campaign invites Gen Z users to post regular “fin check” videos to normalize discussions around financial health, making it as routine and shareable as personal style. In addition, on-campus and social-media influencer activations will amplify awareness around basic financial wellness services, such as credit locking, score simulations and subscription cancellation. A team from Fisk University also won the 2025 competition.
“We came into this competition and said we’re going to put our best foot forward, we’re going to get up here, have fun and we’re going to leave a lasting impact. This is just beyond words,” said Hannah Daniel, biology and business administration major from Fisk University and captain of Team F2.
The #IYKYK Pitch Competition, powered by Experian’s B.A.L.L. for Life initiative, challenged students to develop a bold, culturally relevant campaign that builds on Experian’s concept of being a “Big Financial Friend” (BFF) to their peers and communities. Generation Z consumers carry an average $94,101 in personal debt, the highest compared to other generations.
The competition was the culmination of the Experian Credit Academy created for the Center for Financial Advancement® (CFA). For the first time, the National Urban League’s network of schools joined the academy and competition. More than 300 students from 22 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions came together in live sessions with Experian credit education experts and self-paced modules. Finalists from Alabama State University and Grambling State University also presented their ideas live at Experian’s North America headquarters and each team received a $10,000 prize.
“Experian’s Credit Academy and #IYKYK Pitch Competition aims to modernize and normalize the conversation around money and credit in a fun and culturally relevant way for young adults. Our partnerships with HomeFree-USA, CFA and the National Urban League are essential in helping us reach and empower the next generation of leaders. We were inspired to see how these scholars lean into the learning and proactively share their knowledge as BFFs for their peers and communities,” said Raudy Perez, Senior Director of External Inclusion and Belonging Partnerships for Experian North America.
“Experian’s #IYKYK Pitch Competition gives students the chance to turn knowledge into action. When students connect classroom learning to real-life financial scenarios, their understanding of credit and financial literacy deepens in powerful ways. Exploring how they can become Big Financial Friends for their peers and communities inspires them to become confident advocates who share what they’ve learned,” said LuWanna Williams, Ed.D., University Director for the Center for Financial Advancement®.
Learn more about Experian’s commitment to communities in our 2025 Power of YOU Reports: English | Portuguese | Spanish
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About HomeFree-USA
HomeFree-USA is a nonprofit started by Marcia and Jim Griffin in 1994 with a vision to close the homeownership gap. The organization gives African Americans the guidance they need to achieve and sustain homeownership, and bridges the gap between financial strength and homeownership for people of color across America.
As a HUD-intermediary, HomeFree-USA serves the diverse interests of 6.3 million consumers through its nationwide network of over 50 affiliated community-based nonprofits that specialize in guiding people to first-time homeownership, sustainability and increased financial capacity.
For more information visit: https://homefreeusa.org/.
About Center for Financial Advancement®
The Center for Financial Advancement® (CFA) is a solution to the industry’s call for more diversity. HomeFree-USA partners with, recruits, trains and places students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) into internships and careers in partnering mortgage, real estate, and financial services companies. Participating CFA Scholars are exposed to credit, money management and homeownership in order to become a savvy consumer and future homeowner.
About Experian
Experian is a global data and technology company, powering opportunities for people and businesses around the world. We help to redefine lending practices, uncover and prevent fraud, simplify healthcare, deliver digital marketing solutions, and gain deeper insights into the automotive market, all using our unique combination of data, analytics and software. We also assist millions of people to realize their financial goals and help them to save time and money.
We operate across a range of markets, from financial services to healthcare, automotive, agrifinance, insurance, and many more industry segments.
We invest in talented people and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data and to innovate. A FTSE 100 Index company listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN), we have a team of 25,200 people across 33 countries. Our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at experianplc.com.
Fisk University won the 2026 #IYKYK Pitch Competition, powered by Experian's B.A.L.L. for Life in partnership with HomeFree-USA. This year's challenge statement was to create a bold and creative campaign to amplify Experian's Big Financial Friend initiative. Team F2's presentation of "FinCheck" leveraged the viral social media trend, "fit check" to build financial literacy and credit education for their Gen Z peers. Winners took home a $40,000 grand prize. A team from Fisk University won the 2025 IYKYK Pitch Competition. (L-R) Kanchan Thapa, Hannah Daniel, faculty advisor Latreace Wells, Remi Adeshina and Habeebah Dawodu.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel said it launched airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site Tuesday, and Iran struck back against Israel and across the Gulf region, targeting U.S. embassies and disrupting energy supplies and travel.
Four days into a war that President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks or perhaps longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.
Explosions rang out Tuesday in Tehran and in Lebanon, where Israel said it retaliated against Hezbollah militants. The American embassy in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. consulate in the United Arab Emirates came under drone attacks. Iran has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel, though most of the incoming fire has been intercepted. Eleven people in Israel have been killed since the conflict began.
The spiraling nature of the war raised questions about when and how it would end.
The administration has offered various objectives, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, wiping out its navy, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.
While the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Trump urged Iranians to overthrow their government, senior administration officials have since said regime change was not the goal.
Trump on Tuesday seemed to downplay chances of the war ending Iran's theocratic rule, saying that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel campaign is finished.
Speaking Tuesday from the Oval Office, Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over.
As far as possible leaders inside Iran, “the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said.
“I guess the worst case would be do this, and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen," Trump said. "We don’t want that to happen.”
Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years. It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.
Information coming out of Iran has been limited because of poor communications, round-the-clock airstrikes and tight restrictions on journalists. But across Iran’s capital, aircraft were heard overhead, and explosions rang out.
The Israeli military said it conducted a wave of airstrikes on sites that produce and store ballistic missiles, in Tehran and Isfahan. It also said it destroyed what it called Iran’s secret, underground nuclear headquarters. Without providing evidence, it said the site was used for scientific research “to develop a key component for nuclear weapons.”
“The regime attempted to rebuild its efforts and conceal them, thinking we wouldn’t notice. They were mistaken,” said Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
There was no immediate public comment from the U.S. or Iran about the site Israel named.
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site had sustained “some recent damage,” though there was “no radiological consequence expected.” The U.S. hit Natanz during the 12-day war in June, when Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran's nuclear program.
New rounds of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes rattled Iran.
“Since midnight, I and my wife are hearing sound of explosions,” said Ali Amoli, an engineer living in north Tehran.
Satellite images published Tuesday by Colorado-based company Vantor showed the domed roof of Iran’s presidential complex in Tehran had been destroyed, supporting Israel’s claim of an overnight strike. Iran did not acknowledge the damage or report any casualties.
A north Tehran resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation described growing fears in the capital as it comes under heavy bombardment. The resident said most stores in the normally bustling area of Tajrish were closed, though bakeries and supermarkets remained open.
An attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire,” according to the Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound.
An Iranian drone struck a parking lot outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai, sparking a small fire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Washington. He said all personnel were accounted for.
The United Arab Emirates said it has intercepted the vast majority of more than 1,000 Iranian missile and drone attacks against it.
U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon said they were closed to the public.
The U.S. State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. also urged its citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries, though with much of the airspace closed, many were stranded.
The State Department said Tuesday it’s preparing military and charter flights for Americans who want to leave the Middle East. Several other countries also arranged evacuation flights for their citizens.
The U.S.-Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to the Red Crescent Society. In Lebanon, where Israel launched retaliatory strikes on the Iranian-supported militant group Hezbollah, 50 people were killed, including seven children, Lebanon's health ministry said.
The U.S. military has confirmed six deaths of American service members. In addition, three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday criticized Iran's attacks against Gulf neighbors that had worked to prevent war as an “incredibly flawed strategy” that threatened to widen the war if those states decide to retaliate.
This story has been updated to correct that communications in Iran are poor, but that the internet isn't shut down. It also clarifies that more than one drone hit the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Some instances referred to just one drone.
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Michelle Price and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, David Rising in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
A firefighter extinguishes fire at a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A woman crosses almost deserted square with a billboard at rear showing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S.–Israeli military campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
An Iranian flag is placed among the ruins of a police station struck Monday during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Jewish men covered in prayer shawls pray in an underground parking garage as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A group of men inspects the ruins of a police station struck Monday amid the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
This image provided by U.S. Central Command shows a F-35C Lightning II preparing for launch on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on Monday, March 2, 2026. (U.S. Navy via AP)
Mourners take cover while air-raid sirens warn of incoming missiles launched by Iran toward Israel during the funeral of Sarah Elimelech and her daughter Ronit who were killed in an Iranian missile attack, in Beit Shemesh, Israel, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A worker instals a billboard on an overpass containing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the ongoing joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke engulfs a street after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji)
