The William G. McGowan Charitable Fund has awarded Radford University’s College of Business and Economics a scholarship grant for the second consecutive year. The grant covers up to the full amount of one year’s tuition. The McGowan Fund awards this grant to select accredited college and university business schools to help students pursue a business education.

The McGowan Scholarship program encourages leadership, interpersonal skills and a significant involvement in campus and community activities. It also recognizes excellence of character, a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurial potential.

The recipient of RU’s McGowan scholarship will be a first-semester junior who has declared a major in the College of Business and Economics and has maintained a grade point average of 3.0 or above.

The first recipient of this scholarship was Steve Mignogna, a marketing major from Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Mignogna is a scholarship baseball player who began playing centerfield for the Highlanders as a freshman. He holds a $1,000 per year scholarship from his hometown newspaper and an RU Presidential Scholarship of $1,000. He is active in Campus Crusade for Christ and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honorary society.

William A. Dempsey, dean of the College of Business and Economics, said he is “pleased that our students have the opportunity to participate in this prestigious scholarship.”

The McGowan Fund’s founder, William G. McGowan, organized MCI Communications Corporation in 1968. From then until his death 24 years later, he led that company and the entire telecommunications industry in the application of new technologies, the creation of innovative services and the introduction of competition into what had previously been a closed industry. 

The graduate and undergraduate programs in business administration offered by RU’s College of Business and Economics are accredited by AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). Radford University was named a Best Business School by The Princeton Review in the 2006 edition of Best 237 Business Schools.