Walmart and North Carolina A&T State University Team up to Launch ‘Equity in Education Initiative’

Today, Walmart and America’s largest and top-ranked historically black university, North Carolina A&T State University, are announcing plans to launch the Equity in Education Initiative, a new program aimed at increasing the number of African American college graduates securing careers in fields critical to the nation’s workforce. The program will support undergraduate students with tailored resources and assistance as they pursue degrees in business, engineering and other professional disciplines.

The Equity in Education Initiative, powered by a $5 million investment via Walmart which is the largest corporate investment in North Carolina A&T to date, will deliver a spectrum of resources through four focus areas:

• The Black Male Initiative, housed in the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics and created and implemented with seed funding by the ELC, will address Black male achievement, retention and graduation rates, often lower than that of their female peers.

• The Leadership Cohort Initiative will be supported by Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), and will provide male and female students in the colleges of business and engineering with the skills, coaching and connections to accelerate their professional careers after graduation.

• Advancing Blacks in Engineering aims to not only produce even more graduates in engineering, but to prepare them for leadership roles within the profession, which has been historically dominated by majority populations.

• Scholarship Support will be made available for students. While North Carolina A&T is ranked among the most affordable universities in the country, tuition can be daunting for many families.

Each focus area will support academic performance, enhance critical resources needed to graduate on time and with less debt burden, prepare graduates for first destination career readiness and expand social mobility through additional economic pathways.

“The Equity in Education Initiative is not only an important step in advancing Walmart’s focus on eliminating barriers to opportunity, it also lays foundational building blocks with a diverse pool of talent who we hope will one day consider joining the Walmart team,” said Donna Morris, executive vice president and chief people officer at Walmart. “We’re focused on building a Walmart for everyone and we know these programs will benefit students while also helping to further that vision.”