The Ron Brown Scholar Program was established in 1997 by the CAP Charitable Foundation to honor the former Secretary of Commerce and chair of the Democratic National Committee who was killed in a plane crash in 1996. The program awards 10 to 20 college scholarships each year to extraordinary African-American high school seniors to attend the college or university of their choice. In addition to scholarship funds, Ron Brown Scholars receive mentoring and have many internships open to them during the summers when they are in college. Since 1997, 338 individuals have been chosen as Ron Brown Scholars and 99 percent of the scholars have graduated from college and 54 percent have gone on to earn graduate degrees.
Now Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has announced that it will promote and support opportunities for Ron Brown Scholars to pursue graduate studies at the university’s School of Business. Under the agreement, one Ron Brown Scholar will receive a full tuition scholarship and a $10,000 stipend to enroll in the 10-month master in management program at Wake Forest. Other opportunities at the business school for other Ron Brown Scholars will also be available.
Charles Iacovou, vice dean at the School of Business at Wake Forest University, stated, “Valuing diversity, leadership and service is core to our mission at Wake Forest. The Ron Brown Scholar Program embodies this ideal and we are proud to establish a deeper relationship with this outstanding organization and its exceptional group of students and alumni who share these principles.”
