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UA Little Rock dedicates usable classroom to business students – News
Dozens of university leaders, faculty, students, alumni and business leaders gathered to celebrate the opening of a newly renovated classroom that will improve the learning environment for future business leaders at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Thanks to the generosity of Usable life, the classroom will feature state-of-the-art equipment and technology to benefit Business School students. USable Life provided a $25,000 grant to sponsor the classroom for five years.
“With this newly sponsored classroom, they are making a significant difference for us, our community and our students,” said Dean Ann Bain. “Your generous investment in our students and university will help maintain the Business School at the forefront of preparing our students for success in the job market in the years to come.
John Moran, USable Life’s chief financial officer, remembers looking at the classroom months ago and thinking it would be a good opportunity to invest in the education of Arkansas business students.
“We were looking for a way to give back to this organization,” Moran said. “We are proud to have local ties and that is why we are proud of what we do here at UA Little Rock. Our commitment to this organization remains. We have great UA Little Rock alumni working at USable Life, and it certainly proves what this organization can do for the community.”
This classroom is the latest in a series of educational spaces that have been renovated in partnership with business and community partners throughout central Arkansas. The USable Life Classroom is the first dedicated classroom in the Reynolds Business Building.
The USable Life classroom is one of the largest classrooms at Reynolds and prepares students for careers in accounting, finance, marketing, management, business information systems and more.
USable Life values the quality education and workforce preparation offered by the School of Business. The organization currently employs 52 UA Little Rock alumni as staff.
“Let me commend UA Little Rock for nearly 100 years of impact on this community and for producing some of the great team members we have hired,” said Jason Mann, chairman of the USable Life board of directors. “We appreciate the partnership and look forward to working together for many years to come.”
Members of the UA Little Rock community and guests tour the newly renovated USable Life classroom, which will benefit School of Business students. Photo by Benjamin Krain.
USable Life has a long history of supporting UA Little Rock dating back to 1996. In 2021, the company established an endowed scholarship to benefit first-generation Business School students. This year’s USable Life Endowed Scholarship recipient, MBA student Sathi Gulledge, attended the ceremony.
“Sathi works as a marketing manager for a concert organizing and promotion startup in Little Rock that is planning to launch its first concert project this summer,” said Michael Johnson, director of development and external relations at UA Little Rock. “She has the ultimate goal of opening her own marketing agency for small businesses, creating employment opportunities for other people. This scholarship affirms her dedication and motivates her to continue her dreams.”
This donation is part of the Centennial Campaign, the university’s capital campaign aiming to raise $250 million by UA Little Rock’s centennial in 2027. To date, the campaign has raised $192 million. The donation is part of the living and learning environment pillar. Visit https://ualr.edu/centennial/ For more informations.
“At UA Little Rock, we are focused on improving our living and learning environments to ensure students learn in an environment that meets their needs and has the latest innovations and technologies,” Bain said. “When students have great spaces to live and learn, they build better connections, achieve better learning outcomes, and are better equipped to succeed.”