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Foundation, is aimed at expanding access to higher
education for all students. The scholarships enable
thousands of young Americans to attend undergraduate and graduate institutions of their choice each year,
preparing them to assume leadership roles in their
professions as well as in their communities.
“This program is targeted to encouraging students
to pursue the most difficult majors, such as the sciences,” Dr. Lomax says. “It’s remarkable to think that
this one program will produce 20,000 graduates.”
UNCF Board of Directors
Chair Jack L. Stahl
Building a Pipeline for the Future
Science and technology sectors are an important
focus for UNCF. “It’s critical that there be support
and encouragement for minorities to pursue these
WAL-MART HELPS HBCUS
THRIVE THROUGH UNCF
The Wal-Mart Foundation supports UNCF through services, fundraising and donations, including a $1 million grant to support UNCF’s Institute for Capacity
Building and its Fiscal and Strategic Technical Assistance Program (FASTAP). The
program helps member HBCUs strengthen their finan-
cial and administrative-management operations through
technical assistance, on-site consulting and professional-development opportunities. In addition to Wal-Mart’s
grant, company President and CEO Lee Scott serves on
UNCF’s board of directors. Moreover, 10 senior Wal-Mart executives sit on the boards of HBCUs and five
serve on the boards of UNCF member schools.
“Education is extremely important to Wal-Mart, and HBCUs play an integral
part of the overall education system of this country,” says Tony Waller, senior
director of corporate affairs. “HBCUs create an incredible pool of talent that we
draw from.” Thousands of Wal-Mart’s more than 257,000 Black associates graduated from 73 HBCUs.
All told, the Bentonville,Ark.-based retail giant contributes more than $45 million toward educational initiatives nationally:
• On the local level, from February through September 2008, Wal-Mart stores
and clubs have provided more than $23 million in grants for K– 12 school and
other regional youth programs.
• HBCU scholarship donations include a $100,000 endowment to Wiley College
in Texas and $75,000 for the Walton Scholars Program to Philander Smith College in Arkansas.
Wal-Mart associates are regularly encouraged to donate to UNCF programs
as well. In 2008, associate giving through the company’s matching gifts program
netted the nonprofit more than $300,000.
“We’re working on ways to involve even more of our associates in UNCF,”
explains Waller. “We would like to help UNCF take FASTAP to the next
level by looking for ways in which our associates can provide further assistance by sharing their expertise and knowledge with member HBCUs.”
—D’Anne Hotchkiss
disciplines,” Dr. Lomax
explains. “We’re working to get well-trained
teachers in those fields
to work with these
students. And once
the kids are ready for
college, we want to be
sure that they have the
financial means to stay
the course.”
To further encour-
age students to enter the sciences, UNCF and the
Merck Institute for Science Education and the Merck
Research Laboratories have established scholarship, in-
ternship and fellowship awards for outstanding
Black students pursuing studies and careers in
biomedical research. The program not only
benefits Merck but it also serves the nation,
says Dr. Lomax, reporting that beneficiaries
of this program end up in professorial roles
at universities and even in the space program.
“We’ve produced more than 400 undergradu-
ates, Ph.D.’s and post-doctoral scholars in the
biosciences,” he says.
One beneficiary is Dr. Matthew Walker
III, who received his degree from the Tulane
University School of Medicine in 1999 and
continued his post-graduate education at the
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences. Dr.
Walker currently serves as Senior Cardiovascular Research Scientist at Merck Research
Laboratories. With parents and grandparents
who were physicians as well as graduates of
UNCF colleges and HBCUs, Dr. Walker says
that his work is a natural legacy, allowing him
to develop medicines that can help millions of
people rather than his seeing just one patient
at a time.
“The fellowship provided not only research
opportunities but a unique view into the rigor of
both the research and the researchers,” says
Dr. Walker. “I got to experience the sense of passion that drives them. The fellowship has given me
the visibility to invite and be invited to the table
as a rigorous thought leader, as well as to have access to resources that feed innovative research.”
Another benefit, Dr. Walker explains, is that
the fellowships build a pipeline of scientists
that drive medical and scientific research, and
that this “organic connection of like-minded
