Lisa McKinney, head of the Culverhouse Majors Awareness Program, worked with admissions counselors and visited 30 high schools earlier this year to seek out talented minority students. Those students came to campus Sunday and will remain until Friday for CMAP, a college diversity initiative that will introduce them to the Culverhouse College of Commerce.
Senior Associate Dean Diane Johnson said that while Culverhouse has had a summer camp for prospective students in the past, CMAP was born of a desire to open the program up to a more diverse group. The 30 seniors will hear presentations from faculty and professionals, as well as participate in scavenger hunts and ?pool parties.
“We want to brag on the college and let high school students get a taste of college life and what to expect,” ?she said.
After the camp, McKinney said, the plan is to provide support, financial and otherwise, for ?recruited students.
“We are hoping to guide them through the college process,” she said. “A long-term goal would be for these students to help with future CMAP summer programs to bring in the next group.”
Johnson said Culverhouse wants to attract the broadest, most diverse ?group possible.
“Just as diversity is great for businesses, so is it great for Culverhouse,” she said. “We want the next generation of successful business people to come from the Culverhouse College of Commerce. CMAP is an opportunity for us to showcase our academic programs, our amazing faculty and staff and the opportunities students have to get a great business degree.”
CMAP joins Culverhouse’s existing diversity initiative, the Accounting Career Awareness Program, or ACAP, which will begin Sunday. While CMAP is solely a university initiative, ACAP is done through the National Association of ?Black Accountants.
“We have a student chapter of NABA on campus,” McKinney said. “I’m the faculty advisor, and this is kind of their flagship summer program for high school students. This is our fifth year.”
The 50 sophomores, juniors and seniors make the university’s ACAP, which focuses solely on accounting careers, the second largest in the nation.
“We have a reunion event where we bring them back to campus in the fall after the program,” she said. “We follow up with them, trying to give ?them support.”
McKinney said diversity and inclusiveness are built into the school’s ?mission statement.
“This is the first step to improve diversity at The University of Alabama, starting in high school. It is a directive from the very top of the university that we need to do this,” she said. “Everyone is behind it, everyone is supporting it and everyone agrees it’s one of our top goals.”
Not only do they believe it’s the thing to do, McKinney said, but employers and businesses are seeking diversity ?for themselves.
“Employers want a more diverse work force and, they’re constantly asking for it,” she said. “So we want to deliver.”
