Durham Scholars Program Graduates First Class

randie Bailey entered college this fall armed with a $10,000 scholarship she earned through a six-year commitment to Durham Scholars, a program started in 1995 to assist at-risk youth from northeast Durham's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Brandie Bailey (left) with management professor James H. Johnson Jr.

Eleven members of Bailey's inaugural class of 24 sixth-graders graduated from the program in May. Durham Scholars is the brainchild of the late Frank Hawkins Kenan and management professor James H. Johnson Jr., who runs the program as part of the Kenan Institute, the business school's innovative think-and-do tank that finds creative solutions to public and private sector problems. Durham Scholars is funded by the W. R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust.

The Durham Scholars program uses a myriad of partnerships to help the 140 children it serves in grades six through 12. Union Baptist Church in Durham is one of those key partners - it provides a home for the program four days a week, complete with 11 classrooms, an office and a computer lab.

Corporations also are involved. The AOL Foundation provided computer hardware and Internet accounts for program participants through its PowerUp program, and Cisco wired the computer lab. Other donors have given money for students to go to summer camp. Kenan-Flagler MBA students serve as mentors.

Johnson, an academic activist in the truest sense of the word, is a master at mobilizing community resources to help the students succeed. And just as a management professor should, he sees Durham Scholars as a smart business opportunity - building stronger, more prosperous communities out of the inner city, one student at a time.

"In this rapidly changing knowledge economy, it comes down to brainpower," Johnson said. "These children are the work force of the future. The extent to which they are empowered educationally will have a direct impact on the bottom line."

The Kenan Institute is now working to replicate the Durham Scholars model in three additional North Carolina cities, with a grant of $1.35 million from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.