USA SCHOLARSHIPS: Oakwood University's Employee Family Scholarship

Oakwood University wanted to do something special in honor of its 50th anniversary, so, along with other new offerings, the organization decided to launch a scholarship program for the children of employees. More than a nice thing to do, the company says the scholarship ties into its "core objective" of focusing on employees, or "associates."

The scholarship, the annual Howard F. Ruby Scholarship Program, recognizes three children of Oakwood Associates for their academic achievement and community and environmental service. The scholarship is named for Oakwood's chairman in recognition of his love of learning, experimenting, and pioneering, and was designed "to encourage tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, business, and community leaders."

The company says the response from employees internationally has been "tremendous."

Here are the 10 steps Oakwood says it took to launch this program:
1. Have an executive sponsor and seek organizational buy-in. The program was initiated by Senior Vice President, CHRO, Bill Maxwell working in tandem with Oakwood's innovative Leadership Engagement Advisory Panel (LEAP)—a team of leaders from across Oakwood who are focused on increasing engagement and discretionary effort.
2. Form a selection committee led by a member of the Executive Committee.
3. Benchmark best practices and research successful scholarship programs at other organizations.
4. Align the scholarship guidelines and requirements with the company’s objectives. For example, Oakwood has a long history of community service, so the committee considered each applicant’s volunteer work and community service.
5. Create program guidelines and application forms that are consistent with your organization.
6. Determine the budget for the program and future costs if you are awarding scholarships for consecutive years of learning.
7. Prepare a detailed communications plan and timeline to effectively market and promote the program to all employees—-then communicate, communicate, and communicate.
8. Host a luncheon celebration for each recipient and their employee parent with the chairman, president, Executive Committee, and Scholarship Selection Committee.
9. Issue inspiring internal announcements, including photos and quotes from honorees and their parents. Oakwood associates enjoyed hearing their stories.
10. Issue press releases and photos from the event. Target local media for each of the honorees.

HAVE INPUT OR TIPS on this topic? If so, send them our way in an e-mail to lorri@trainingmag.com with the subject line "Scholarship," and we'll try to include your advice in an upcoming issue of the Training Top 125 Best Practices/Executive Exchange e-newsletter.