BOP students continue to make an impact in the Lafayette community
Our generous alumni and the support of corporations, the School of Management, and friends who routinely give to BOP make our program special. With so many program constituents sharing their time, energy, knowledge, talent, and resources to make BOP students' academic and career goals attainable, it is only fitting for BOP to pay that support forward by giving back to the Lafayette community. This year, BOP students Mya Carter (2020 Internship: Accenture, NYC) and Makayla Woods (2020 Internship: Microsoft, Seattle) taught career readiness skills to local high school students like Jeremiah, Carlos, and Rogelio.
Sadly, there are many BOP students affected by sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that causes excruciating pain throughout the body. Students have parents with the disease, students "carry" the disease by inheriting one bad hemoglobin gene from a parent (inheriting one bad hemoglobin gene from each parent gives someone the disease), and there was one BOP student with the disease herself. Because of her battles with the disease, frequent hospital visits, and medical bills on top of out-of-state tuition, she was not able to finish her degree at Purdue University. BOP students leading the Society of Minority Managers (SMM) decided to put together a fun activity for everyone on campus to raise awareness regarding sickle cell disease and support those students on campus affected by the disease. Former student athletes DJ Knox, Tim Cason, and Jacquil Taylor, representatives from Greek fraternities and sororities, and BOP students Lumari Perez (BOP '17) and Jay Matos (BOP '15) helped the annual SMM Campus Celebrity Date Auction for charity raise over $10,000 for The Martin Center - Sickle Cell Initiative.
Thanks to Victoria Coats (BOP '18), students in need of winter clothing will stay warm this holiday season. To date, we received 30 winter coats for local elementary school children in need. With all of BOP's philanthropic efforts, current students continue to live up to the program's mission of producing the next wave of business and community leaders.
