IU Kelley Faculty of Small business gets $1 million for minority guidance
Philanthropists and enterprise leaders Derica Rice and Robin Nelson-Rice have donated $1 million to the Indiana University’s Kelley Faculty of Enterprise to enable fund scholarships for minority students pursuing an education and learning in business enterprise.
The donation will enable support students in the Kelley School’s Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Cofounded by the faculty in 1966, the consortium is a nationwide firm that is effective to recruit, support and mentor Black, Latino and Native American college students in MBA programs.
Derica Rice said gifting the funds was a “no-brainer” for him and his spouse. The consortium and IU supplied an prospect for each individual of them to get a graduate degree in enterprise which opened specialist doors that would not or else have been out there.
“Another person the moment stated it is really Ok to be the initially,” Derica Rice said all through a phone job interview with IndyStar, “just make positive you happen to be not the final. So how do we make confident that some others that come soon after us are equipped to get the very same kind of possibilities?”
While some debate the requirement and charge of MBA degrees, the Rices said there is no substitute for schooling.
“The MBA is far more than just the in-classroom lecturers. It is the complete encounter in phrases of, if you want to start off your own organization, how do you create a business approach? How do you generate a system,” Derica Rice stated. “Those are some of the capabilities you want regardless of whether you might be making your very own company or you are functioning in the company setting.”
He reported the company university supplied him the option to broaden his small business insights and techniques.
Donation will raise variety and inclusion at organization faculty
Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the IU Kelley Faculty of Company and the Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Administration, explained the donation will create advantages considerably bigger than a person program or university.
Kesner claimed the money will support increase diversity and inclusion at the company faculty and recruit learners from underrepresented groups to the MBA plan.
“The consortium puts on programming for underrepresented pupils. They have an orientation method. They have networking systems. They aid with candidates’ position research … ” she said. “But the scholarship basically arrives from the individual schools.”
The consortium’s 20 member universities — which include Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper Faculty of Small business and the Yale College of Management — have agreed to provide entire scholarships for students, she reported. As such, the Rices’ $1 million donation supports college students who apply and are approved into IU’s Kelley University of Enterprise via the consortium plan. The program is competitive and advantage-centered.
“It has been reported that success is when preparation satisfies prospect, and we truly feel incredibly strongly that education will offer that preparedness that all college students need no make a difference what the option,” Robin Nelson-Rice explained.
With the donation, the business school will establish the “Rice Consortium Fellows” method. Just about every year, two 1st-yr and two next-12 months pupils will be named “Rice Consortium Fellows.” The donation the Rices’ place forth will do the job similarly to an endowment that would crank out money perpetually for the system.
The Kelley University also will continue to assist the Consortium’s yearly orientation system & occupation forum in honor of Derica Rice and Robin Nelson-Rice.
“I hope it signifies that people college students, on their own, are able to take benefit of the option in advance of them,” he stated. “But far more importantly, from a role-modeling standpoint, hopefully, they also will flip around and do the very same. They will then in switch feel about how they too can enable other individuals along their journey. If that cascade can take put then that would be the real legacy that we hope to leave.”
After all, the pair said, they believe that no a person succeeds on their have.
Kelley University to fulfil 30-by-30 initiative
The donation will also help the Kelley Faculty and the consortium satisfy the consortium’s 30-by-30 strategic initiative, which calls for just about every member university and corporate America to have minority students comprise 30% of enrollment within just their MBA plans by 2030. The determine is constant with U.S. populace demographics, claimed Kimberly Alexander, the consortium’s vice president of growth.
“The reward of the Rices will guide not only the Kelley College but incentivize other member faculties in assembly that goal,” she claimed.
Usually in previous several years, IU’s Kelley School of Company has had among 20 and 30 consortium college students. But this year, Kesner explained, the faculty has approximately 10 because of to a drop in enrollment in MBA systems and the impact of COVID-19.
About the Rices
The Rices are each consortium alumni of the IU Kelley School of Small business MBA system. Derica Rice has experienced a distinguished corporate career, getting used additional than 30 yrs as a health and fitness treatment government, the greater part of which he worked for Eli Lilly.
Most not too long ago, he served as executive vice president of CVS Wellness and president of CVS Caremark, the company’s pharmacy rewards administration enterprise.
At the moment, Derica Rice serves as a member of the board of administrators for the Walt Disney Business, Goal Company, and Bristol Myers Squibb Enterprise. He was an IU trustee from 2007 to 2016 and is a founding member of the IU Black Philanthropy Circle.
Robin Nelson-Rice also has experienced distinguished occupation, having held govt positions in marketing and advertising at Eli Lilly and AT&T. She is a philanthropist and volunteers on a selection of local community boards and institutions, like the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana.
Their donation counts toward the $3.9 billion “For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Marketing campaign,” which supports learners, investigation systems and extra.
Speak to IndyStar reporter Alexandria Burris at [email protected] or contact 317-617-2690. Observe her on Twitter: @allyburris.