Letter from the Director | Spring 2020
Steven Johnson Jr. discusses some of the academic, personal, and professional successes of Multicultural Business Scholars this semester.
After a wide range of uniquely challenging circumstances, I am happy that the Multicultural Business Scholars Program was able to continue to service students academically, personally, and professionally this semester. Recognizing the nature of this program, we acknowledge that our underrepresented students have had to navigate this pandemic with disproportionate impacts and consequences in their lives. Scholars adjusted to remote learning, managed new routines and responsibilities, cared for loved ones, all while remaining vigilant in staying safe and healthy.
Amid all of this, the Multicultural Business Scholars prioritized creating spaces for one another to process, continued to network and build on sustainable academic habits, and successfully completed the spring semester. In response to COVID-19, we created a variety of virtual engagements that sought to cater to the social, academic, personal, and professional needs of our scholars. We held community processing space, hosted a virtual bingo event, shared in words of wisdom with our graduating seniors (now graduated!), and facilitated more one-to-one scholar/director check-ins. Students truly benefitted from the diverse offerings of interactions and engagements.
Many of our scholars received their highest GPAs, felt more focused and confident, and achieved personal goals. The following accolades intend to acknowledge the hard work of this group during the past semester. One-third of all MBSP scholars achieved a 4.0 GPA for the spring 2020 semester. This is the most who have accomplished this goal since I began working with the MBSP in 2018. Over 95% of scholars had a 3.0 or higher GPA. Lastly, this group achieved their highest-recorded semester and cumulative GPA, at 3.7 and 3.52 respectively. I am incredibly proud of the Multicultural Business Scholars for their hard work, perseverance, and dedication.
Congratulations to all of our scholars for a job well done. Additionally, I extend a huge celebratory “shout out” to all the graduated seniors. While this semester ended differently than any of us could have imagined, you continued to be diligent about ending your undergraduate careers with tenacity and pride. Thank you!
Steven Johnson Jr. (he/him/his)
Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Programs
KU School of Business
