UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 29, Page 1
April 29, 1993
MBNA commits $1 million to UDFortune 2000 program
One of the nation's largest credit card companies, MBNA America, has
made a $1 million commitment to the University of Delaware to help fund a
minority recruitment and scholarship program in the College of Business and
Economics.
University President David P. Roselle announced the company's gift to
the college's new Fortune 2000 program at a press conference April 26 on
the campus.
"MBNA America has done a truly marvelous thing with this generous
gift," Roselle said.
"Once again, this company has assumed a leadership role in our
community, evidencing high degrees of social conscience and corporate
citizenship with support for a program whose goals are to increase the
number of minorities in the field of business, while enhancing ethnic
diversity on our campus," Roselle said.
"We are enormously grateful to the people of MBNA America, who now
include more than 1,500 of our alumni and current students," Roselle said.
"Gifts from the company have provided support for the MBNA America
Concourse in the new Bob Carpenter Center on the campus, and in the College
of Business and Economics, for undergraduate scholarships, for the MBNA
Teaching Professorship and for research conducted by the Financial
Institutions Research and Education (FIRE) Center," he said.
"MBNA America has made a difference on our campus and in our
community, and with this latest gift, will be making a real difference in
the lives of minority students who have dreamed of a career in business,"
Roselle said.
The college's Fortune 2000 program features a comprehensive program of
support services for African-American/Black, Hispanic/Latino/
Mexican-American and Native American Indian students who are majoring in
accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing and operations
management on the campus.
Modeled after the University's highly successful RISE (Resources to
Insure Successful Engineers) Program in the College of Engineering, Fortune
2000 provides students with academic and career-related assistance, as well
as motivational activities, to ensure their successful matriculation,
graduation and career placement.
According to Kenneth R. Biederman, dean of the College of Business and
Economics, "with the MBNA funding, the college aims to significantly
increase its minority student enrollment to a level that is approximately
proportionate to their representation in the state population by the year
2000, to increase the number of minority business students who excel
academically and to increase the number of minority business graduates who
obtain managerial and leadership positions in industry."
In conjunction with MBNA America and under the umbrella of the Fortune
2000 program, the College of Business and Economics will administer the
MBNA America Minority Student Business program, he said, to include the
following special services:
* Pre-college business academic enrichment and career development
for minority high school students in grades 9-12 during the
regular academic year and the summer months;
* Financial support from scholarships and awards provided by the
University, MBNA, Fortune 2000 Partners and other sources to
provide full and partial funding for qualified students;
* A five-week College Residential Summer Academic Bridge Academy to
assist incoming minority business freshman and transfer students
in making successful transitions from high school and other
colleges into the College of Business and Economics;
* Close academic monitoring by the program's staff to help students
focus on academic studies, such as meeting with special advisers
every two weeks to assess student progress in addition to the
regular advisement received by all undergraduates from faculty
advisers;
* Professional development workshops, student organizational
participation and mentoring by MBNA America and other business
personnel and faculty of the college to provide students with
opportunities to enhance their leadership, social and
interpersonal skills appropriate for business success; and
* Summer employment and cooperative education opportunities to
provide students with additional stimuli to succeed and the
possibility for full-time employment with their sponsor after
graduation.
"Businesses are having a tough time finding minority candidates who
possess the qualifications to assume leadership positions, and Fortune 2000
will help the University recruit top minority talent and then prepare the
students to meet the business challenges of the 21st century," Biederman
said.
"MBNA America and other companies will see an increased number of
minority students who possess first-class business training and expertise,"
the dean said.
On behalf of program staff and student participants, Fortune 2000
director Terry M. Whittaker, assistant dean of the College of Business and
Economics, offered thanks to MBNA America "for taking a leadership role in
the development of Fortune 2000.
"MBNA America's gift is a tremendous boost for minority students and
the college's Fortune 2000 program. The talent is here. Students just need
to be shown that executive opportunities in business do exist for them.
"We hope MBNA's philanthropic act will be contagious among other
businesses," Whittaker said. "Corporate sponsors stand to benefit from
access to minority student talent in the college."
The College of Business and Economics is the University's second
largest, with 1,900 undergraduates enrolled, including 82 minority
students.
Whittaker was the founding director of the RISE Program, which under
his leadership, increased minority enrollment in Delaware's College of
Engineering from 5 to 12 percent within a three-year period.