Financial services giant Fidelity this morning pledged $250 million over the next five years toward helping more underrepresented students get a college education without incurring debt — and the initiative will start in the Triangle, home to one of the company's largest offices.

• The money will support 50,000 Black and Latino students through scholarships, mentoring programs and grants to nonprofits focused on helping underrepresented students.

Driving the news: The Triangle is one of three regions where Fidelity plans to pilot the program, along with Boston and Dallas.

• Fidelity will fund 100 scholars in the Triangle starting this year and will add more in the following years.

Why it matters: Black and Latino students are less likely to graduate college within four years due in part to financial pressures that cause them to drop out or work during their school years.

• Students of color also typically carry more college debt — a factor that contributes to the country's racial wealth gap.

Catch up quick: Fidelity employs more than 5,000 people in its Durham offices, which is home to one of the company's largest tech hubs.

What they're saying: "In the end we get to contribute to building the state's workforce, building the state's diverse workforce, and we get to do that on a national scale," Leslie Walden, vice president of regional public affairs for Fidelity, told Axios.

• She added that Fidelity will use the Triangle, Dallas and Boston to learn how to scale the program nationally.

Details: Fidelity's $250 million commitment is broken down into three areas.

1. It will partner with the UNCF and local groups such as Made in Durham to identify students for its new scholarship. Around $190 million of the funds will go toward scholarships and support.
2. It will dole out grants to local institutions to assist students who are in danger of dropping out of school due to unpaid tuition or outstanding balances.
3. It will send grants to nonprofit organizations working to improve graduation rates for Black, Latino and other underserved students.

Walden said that existing Fidelity workers also will volunteer to provide mentoring to students on their careers and financial literacy.

What's next: Fidelity says it will work with its nonprofit partners to select its first group of scholarship recipients this summer. Interested students can apply through the United Negro College Fund.

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The Triangle's restaurant scene is making a comeback, but it still has a ways to go.

Driving the news: After seeing a bump in reservations last spring, Raleigh restaurants felt a slight decrease in the fall.

• Reservations in October 2022 were 9% lower than they were in October 2019, the most recent OpenTable data available show.
• For reference, October 2020 was about 20% down from October 2019.

Why it matters: The data is a sign that our restaurants haven't fully recovered since being devastated by the pandemic, but they're on the upswing.

The big picture: The Triangle lost some of its most beloved restaurants last year while gaining some new essentials. This year, we're looking forward to watching our dining scene continue to blossom.

Go deeper: The Triangle's 12 most anticipated restaurant openings in 2023

🚌 Durham parents are concerned about a plan that could reassign thousands of students to new elementary schools. (News & Observer 🔒)

• Durham Public Schools officials say the change is needed because school boundaries haven't been changed in more than 30 years.

🏀 Duke fell out of the AP Top 25 basketball poll for the first time since 2021, as UNC and N.C. State also remain unranked. (WRAL)

🐖 Backyard BBQ Pit in Durham is in danger of closing, as owners launch a GoFundMe to raise $50,000. (WCHL)

Shinica Thomas is the new chair of the Wake County Commissioners, where she has served since 2020.

Thomas spoke with Axios for our "Local Limelight" series last week about her favorite things in the Triangle and the challenges for Black women elected to political office. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

🌭 Favorite place to eat in the Triangle: We have some friends from the Chicago area and they have a food truck called Goodness Grace Us. They serve Chicago-style hot dogs, pizza puffs, fried fish and things like that. They recently opened in a ghost kitchen in Wake Forest.

🚌 What the Triangle is missing: I would definitely say transit, transit, transit. It's super difficult to get around sometimes.

📖 First thing she reads in the morning: A Bible verse. I roll over to a glass of water and I pick up a pen and I have a little journal with prompted Bible verses. It gets my day started in a good place.

📚 Last great book she read: "Black Cake" by Charmaine Wilkerson. My family's from the Caribbean, and I saw a lot of my family in that fictional story.

Keep reading for more of Thomas' picks

💼 Check out who's hiring on our Job Board.

1. Senior Director of Media Relations at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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A longtime fixture in Raleigh's media scene, WRAL's Cullen Browder, is leaving the station after 25 years.

Driving the news: Browder, an investigative reporter, announced his departure from the news business on Twitter Thursday and said he'll take some time before exploring his next career move.

Why it matters: Reporters who have institutional knowledge of a city are becoming a rare breed.

What he's saying: In a statement, Browder says he's "interviewed a stabbing victim waiting on the ambulance, and been mooned by teenagers during a live report. Each story carries tremendous responsibility to seek truth, fairness, and common sense for the viewers I am privileged to serve."