National Black MBA Association Establishes Scholarship to Honor Murdered Scholar

The National Black MBA Association has announced the formation of the Bakari Henderson Memorial Scholarship Fund, named in honor of a 22-year-old graduate of the University of Arizona, world traveler, and budding entrepreneur who was senselessly killed while vacationing in Greece.

An aspiring fashion designer, Bakari Henderson had an entrepreneurial spirit and read books like Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, according to an article on the AZCentral website. He earned good grades and won a full scholarship to UA, his mother says in the post, and was a member of NBMBAA. He had also received an NBMBAA China Europe International Business School scholarship, the world’s largest executive M.B.A. program.

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Handsome, success-oriented, outgoing, and positive, Henderson seemingly had a bright entrepreneurial future before his life was brutally cut short by a gang of about 10 men, many of them reportedly Serbian, outside a bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos last July.

National Black MBA Association

Out of this tragic backstory, the NBMBAA has chosen to honor Henderson by providing a scholarship in an effort to continue “the legacy of education and cultural diversity” that he valued, says an NBMBAA spokeswoman.

“The educational scholarship fund aims to motivate future leaders to take advantage of every educational opportunity that allows them the exposure of studying abroad,” the spokeswoman says in an email.

The scholarship provides financial support to students who participate in a study abroad program while attending college. It will be awarded for the first time in May 2019, and annually thereafter. Recipients will be NBMBAA members or former members of Leaders of Tomorrow, or LOT.

For more information, or to donate to the Bakari Henderson Memorial Scholarship Fund, please visit https://nbmbaa.org/bakari-henderson-memorial-scholarship-fund.