In 2009 the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business completed two years of analysis on undergraduate enrollment to find that under-represented minority students weren’t successfully completing the pre-business curriculum at the same rate as non-minority students.
In past interviews with students of color who had completed Business or Accounting majors, they found that these students often felt “lost” during their two year pre-business experience. They talked about not being able to find people that could identify with their personal backgrounds, about the difficult transition from high school to the fast-paced, academic rigor of college and finding a support system that could help them during this transition.
It was then, that the committee on Strategic Planning for Diversity Initiatives decided to pilot a project to cohort exceptional students of color in a unique pre-business experience in an effort to retain their participation in the curriculum and ultimately increase the enrollment of students of color in the business and accounting majors.