BUSINESS EDUCATION ISN'T just for executives
and aspiring entrepreneurs—it’s
for anyone who wants to develop the
skills to make the world a better place.
The difficulty, however, is raising awareness
of that fact among groups that
might not have considered pursuing a
business degree.
With a new initiative, Tulane University’s
Freeman School of Business in
New Orleans, Louisiana, hopes to reach
two such groups: Peace Corps volunteers
and Fulbright Scholars who have
been recalled prematurely from their
international assignments due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. A new scholarship program is designed to help these individuals
view pursuing business degrees
as a viable alternative.
The program stemmed from “the desire
to support this group of individuals
at their time of disruption and uncertainty,”
says John Clarke, the Freeman
School’s associate dean for graduate
programs. “We’ve set aside significant
fellowship dollars to help Peace Corps
volunteers offset the cost of tuition to all
of our programs.”
The Freeman School already has
graduated previous Peace Corps volunteers,
for whom business study makes
sense. They tend to be entrepreneurial
problem solvers, who want to go on to
start social enterprises and nonprofits.
That includes Edward Crawford, who
started a cooperative in the Dominican
Republic to help coffee farmers maximize
proceeds from their harvests. As he
worked on that project, he realized that
additional business training would have
been useful in that effort.
“I was putting together the co-op’s
board, leading board meetings, doing the
legal work to form a business in another
country, but I had no formal business
training,” Crawford says. “I wanted to
learn how real businesses operated.” Upon his return to the
U.S., Crawford enrolled
in the Freeman School’s
MBA program. Crawford
went on to become the
co-founder and president
of Coltala Holdings, a purpose-
driven private equity
holding company.
Every Peace Corps volunteer who is admitted
to the Freeman School’s
program this year will
receive a scholarship.
These scholarships cover
between 25 percent to
50 percent of the cost
of degree programs of
particular interest to
returning Peace Corps
volunteers and Fulbright
student grantees. In some
cases, these scholarships
may be combined with
other financial support
options, including full
tuition plus stipends for
some PhD programs. The school has not
set a cap on the amount of funding it will
allocate to these fellowships.
The school has expedited the application
process for the program, with its
admissions office reviewing and making
admittance decisions within ten days of
receiving each application. The school
has waived GMAT and GRE requirements,
requiring prospective students
to provide up-to-date résumés and their
undergraduate transcripts in lieu of
standardized test scores. Admissions
staff are conducting virtual interviews
of the most promising applicants.
Students who receive scholarships
to pursue business degrees also can
pursue second degrees related to their
areas of interest at other schools on
campus, including the schools of architecture,
law, liberal arts, professional
advancement, public health and tropical
medicine, science and engineering, and
social work. Scholarships will be offered
to students who enroll in programs for
the summer 2020, fall 2020, or spring
2021 semesters.
As of April, the school had more
than a dozen returning Peace Corps
volunteers apply to the program, and
several were admitted. “We anticipate
being able to support any and all that
are admitted,” says Clarke. “These are
extraordinary times and we are doing
whatever we can to support these
individuals, as well as our current and
prospective students."