Building Minority Leadership Through LEAD
By Eleanor Lee Yates

adina Russell (BSBA '02) wasn't sure what to expect when she was accepted into the LEAD Summer Business Institute after her junior year at a Georgia high school. LEAD - the Leadership, Education and Development Program - is held at 12 of the top business schools around the country. LEAD influences talented African-American, Hispanic-American and Native-American high school students to pursue careers in business.

Six years after attending the summer business institute at the University of Virginia, Russell says LEAD was truly a life-changing experience.

"I discovered that business wasn't only about accounting and finance. I learned about marketing, organizational behavior and how technology is tied into business," said Russell, who went on to enroll as an undergraduate student at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Today, she is a business analyst with Deloitte Consulting in Philadelphia and plans to pursue an MBA.

This summer, UNC Kenan-Flagler will become the newest business school to sponsor a LEAD Summer Business Institute. The program began in 1980 at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School when a group of business executives approached the university about encouraging more minority students to enter business. Today, the national partnership of U.S. corporations and graduate business schools has more than 6,000 alumni. More than two-thirds are working or pursuing degrees in economics, accounting, finance, management and other business fields.

UNC Kenan-Flagler's BSBA Program will coordinate the LEAD Institute in cooperation with the MBA Program, according to Jeff Cannon, BSBA Program director. Students apply to LEAD's national office in Philadelphia, which screens the applicants. UNC Kenan-Flagler selects the final candidates.

The School hopes to use the opportunity to reach out to North Carolina high schools and to encourage talented minority students to consider UNC as their LEAD Institute of choice.

"The LEAD program will give the University an opportunity to target high-potential North Carolina minority students and lure them toward pursuit of a business degree," said James H. Johnson Jr., management professor and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler. "Our goal is to recruit and train the next generation of minority business leaders who will play a pivotal role in enhancing the state's and the nation's competitiveness in the highly integrated world economy."

The program is very competitive. Last year, 1,800 applicants competed for 372 slots at Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Northwestern, Arizona, UCLA and the universities of Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas.

From June 22 to July 12, approximately 30 rising high school seniors, many from North Carolina, will arrive on the UNC campus for three weeks of classes. They will develop a business plan, become familiar with case studies and learn of the many kinds of careers a degree in business has to offer. The summer institute curriculum will include competitive team-building activities, meetings with corporate executives and visits to area and regional companies.

Ellen Peirce, associate dean of the BSBA Program, said the School is committed to making its LEAD Institute a success, because students like Radina Russell illustrate the program is having a major impact.

"We believe we can make a real difference in encouraging highly motivated minority high school students to pursue careers in business," she said.

For information, visit www.leadnational.org.