062115 EDU Did You Know?
470 words
By Aashka Dave
When Marcia Taylor, CEO of logistics company Bennett International Group, started a scholarship for supply chain management students, she wanted to help students who might not be able to afford a college education.
The scholarship, funded through the Taylor Family Foundation, has awarded $2,500 each to eight students at Clayton State University, through May 2015. The award is Clayton State’s largest scholarship for students majoring in supply chain management and it has been approved for a third year, said Thomas Giffin, director of development at Clayton State.
Taylor, who did not attend college, grew the business from the trucking company, George Bennett Motor Express, that she and her late husband, J.D. Garrison, purchased in 1974. Now, the McDonough company has more than 3,000 owner/operators, agents and employees and annual revenue of more than $315 million.
Taylor works with her three grown children and four of her seven grandchildren in the family-owned trucking/transportation business, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution named as one of Atlanta’s Top Workplaces for 2015.
Taylor stresses that the evolving nature of the logistics and transportation industry underscores the need for students to gain education and training to be prepared to work in the field.
“We thought by offering this scholarship, especially in logistics, and by offering it to a great local college like Clayton State, it would be a perfect way to help maybe some students who couldn’t afford to get a college education,” she said.
Four $2,500 awards are distributed annually to students in the supply chain program. The scholarships are vital at Clayton State. During the 2014-2015 school year, 75 percent of Clayton State University students demonstrated financial need and more than 53 percent receive Pell Grant funding.
Hue Nguyen, a 2014 graduate of Clayton State’s supply chain management program, says the scholarship helped ease her financial concerns so she could focus on school. She now works as a management trainee for freight forwarding company Kuehne + Nagel in Stockbridge.
“It impacted me a lot,” she said. “It actually changed my perspective in life, too. I had just had a baby, and that time, when I gave birth to my baby, I had to go to work and luckily I had the scholarship and Mrs. Marcia Taylor.”
Taylor said resources, such as online learning opportunities, weren’t available for her to pursue education as a young mother.
“I so enjoyed getting to meet some of the students that have received it and hear their stories,” Taylor said. “Because they have stories a lot like what mine was many years ago.”
Students majoring in supply chain management in their junior or senior years at Clayton State with a 2.5 or higher GPA and demonstrated financial need are eligible for the scholarship. Scholarships are distributed through the Office of Financial Aid at Clayton State.
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