Bank of America Donates to Johnson C. Smith Student Employment Program

With the help of Bank of America, Johnson C. Smith University is proving that they are dedicated to helping prepare their students to be future leaders in the workforce.

Thanks to a $500,000 award from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, JCSU will now have additional help in improving its College-to-Career student program, which provides professional training to help prepare students for employment, as well as tuition assistance to students in need.

Each year nearly 80 percent of entering students at JCSU qualify for financial aid and 70 percent of students come from low-income backgrounds, thus a program that provides employment and financial assistance to students is definitely needed.

“We are charged as an urban university with providing access to highly motivated and talented students from all walks of life, and that includes helping our students find ways to finance their education,” the Charlotte Observer reports JCSU President Dr. Ronald Carter saying in a statement. “We are grateful to Bank of America for helping to remove some of the financial barriers facing our students.”

Charles Bowman, North Carolina market president for Bank of America, says that the program fits within the foundation’s mission to aid the workforce and help connect young people to career opportunities.

“By partnering with Johnson C. Smith on their student employment program…students will have the resources to learn professional skills outside of the classroom,” said Bowman, who also credits the gift as an economic investment that “helps the local economy” since JCSU is right in Charlotte.

In addition to helping improve the university’s College-to-Career program, $100,000 from the gift will be put aside to renovate the historic Dr. George E. Davis House, which is named after the school’s first black professor. The house serves as an administrative home for the Foster Village Network Center, which works to increase retention and graduation rates for students who come from foster care backgrounds.