You don’t know what you don’t know, and if you’ve never been exposed to a particular career or seen someone who looks like you in a position of influence, it’s hard to imagine entering that field or wielding that influence.
Matt Waller, the new dean at the Walton College of Business, understands this, as does Morton Fleischer, an Arizona entrepreneur who founded the Fleischer Scholars Program. The scholarship program got its start at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and has expanded to the Walton College at the University of Arkansas.
At the Walton College, it targets students from what Waller calls “underrepresented” parts of Arkansas, which is most of the state outside of northwest Arkansas, giving them a taste of college life and a business school curriculum.
“It’s a method of reaching out to students who are qualified, capable, maybe even ambitious, but they don’t understand the opportunities that majoring in business would provide them,” Waller told Arkansas Business.
At the Walton College, the program is working with the banking industry to provide internships. The hope is that once these interns graduate, they’ll return to banks in their communities in management roles. As both interns and, potentially, bank employees, these business students serve as examples of success, role models in a field many high schoolers — particularly the poor, minorities, women and first-generation students — might not consider.
The banks receive federal Community Reinvestment Act credit for participation.
As of a couple of weeks ago, Signature Bank of Arkansas had committed to funding three of these scholarships, and Bank of England had committed to two. Waller said the college would be reaching out to another 30 banks in the next few months. It’s a worthy program with potential to help both Arkansas students and Arkansas banks.