CARGILL GIFT ESTABLISHES NEW DIVERSITY INITIATIVES AT K-STATE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, November 14,2008
Contact: Rebecca Hayne, 316-291-2126
MANHATIAN — Cargill announced today that it has made a gift of $1 million to the office of diversity and dual career development at Kansas State University to establish the Cargill Project Impact Diversity Partnership.
Cargill's gift supports K-Sfate's Project Impact Diversity Initiative encompassing diversity recruiting and retention programs for qualified multicultural students in the Colleges of Agriculture, Business Administration and Engineering.
Six initiatives will receive funding over a three-year period. The Cargill College for a Day Institutes include five one-day college programs for students in grades seven through 12 designed to excite them about the academic disciplines in agriculture and demonstrate how these disciplines connect to careers.
The Cargill Relationship Recruiting Program is a program of enhanced, personalized recruiting activities that will follow and mentor institute participants showing interest in the target disciplines and identify additional students interested in the target disciplines. This program will include both need-and merit-based scholarship support.
The Cargill Project Impact Scholarships will be awarded to promising historically under-represented undergraduate students who are seeking admission to, or who are enrolled in, the Colleges of Agriculture, Business Administration or Engineering at K-State.
Cargill Infrastructure Support will provide funds for programmatic components of Project Impact for the office of diversity and dual career development, the diversity programs office in the College of Agriculture; and the dean for diversity in the College of Business Administration.
The Cargill Summer Bridge Program will prepare incoming students for the academic rigor of the university environment; familiarize freshmen with K-State and introduce campus services; connect summer bridge program participants to multicultural student leaders and organizations; communicate with parents of incoming freshmen to seek their support and involvement; and begin the developmental advising process.
The Cargill Diversity Faculty Fellow in Agriculture will begin advising students during the summer bridge program and continue throughout the students' enrollment at K-State. This individual will maintain a close working relationship with the students and with the office of diversity and dual career development.
At Cargill, diversity is essential to our business, says Rick Calhoun, president of Cargill Marine and Terminal and the chair of Cargill's K-State steering committee. "We recognize our continued success is dependent upon the growth and vitality of our communities and partners and firmly believe that by investing in a diverse workforce we are creating an environment where possibilities are endless. We are proud to partner with K-State on a comprehensive diversity initiative that builds the pipeline for students in areas of study such as agri-business and engineering."
"For the past 20 years, Cargill has contributed time, talent and resources to K-State in support of academic programs, leadership and ethics curriculum, diversity initiatives, scholarships and facilities improvements across campus," said Myra Gordon, associate provost for diversity and dual career development. "Their gift of $1 million to establish the Cargill Project Impact Diversity Partnership is a huge boost to our comprehensive diversity recruitment and retention efforts at K-State. This is a strategic imperative for K-State, and we are deeply grateful to Cargill for the funding and leadership they have dedicated to Project Impact."
"We at K-State greatly appreciate Cargill's support of our diversity initiatives," said M. Duane Nellis, provost and senior vice president. "The companies, like Cargill, who hire our graduates, understand that supporting diversity at K-State enables our students to prepare themselves both to work with people from various cultures and to meet the increasing demand for multicultural competencies in a global, economy."