Alumna creates $75,000 endowed scholarship to support female business students

Michele Powers '84 has created the Powers Family Endowed Scholarship to support female students of any major in the College of Business Administration (CBA). Through her pledge of $50,000 with a supplemental gift of $25,000 from her employer, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the $75,000 scholarship will benefit female CBA students with demonstrated financial need.

Powers hopes the renewable, four-year scholarship will help women achieve their educational and career goals.

"This scholarship will help driven women learn how to become leaders," she says. "You read all these stories about how there are not many women in the C-suite and there's a lack of female CEOs. I want to promote women getting business degrees so they can sit on a leadership board one day or become a CEO."

Women made up barely 5 percent of the 2018 Fortune 500 list of CEOs with just 24 female CEOs among Fortune 500 companies.

Powers' donation is part of the $1.7 million in total endowment commitments recorded at the end of the fiscal year in June. Endowed scholarships will benefit Rider students in perpetuity.

"We are pleased to see that endowed scholarships saw a 50 percent increase this past fiscal year in comparison to the previous fiscal year," says Karin Klim, vice president for University Advancement. "Michele's generous support will benefit Rider women for years to come."

Scholarship recipients will also participate in the Rider Women's Leadership Council (RWLC) to gain further leadership skills through mentoring. The cornerstone to the RWLC is a mentorship program where Rider seniors and graduate students have the opportunity to be paired with successful alumnae and friends. As a founding member and vice president of the RWLC, Powers is passionate about women mentoring women.

"I've been fortunate enough to work for large companies throughout my career that are dedicated to mentoring," she says. "Early in my career, my mentors were always men because they tended to be the managers back then. I didn't have a female mentor for a long time. It's become so important to me to have a female mentor because there are some things women leaders can teach other women that men can't."

Creating a scholarship to honor not only women but also her family was important to Powers. Her parents are Rider alumni who met on campus as freshmen when the institution was located in Trenton, N.J. Her father, Michael '60, earned a Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a major in business administration and was a standout baseball player. Powers is proud to say her mother, Ann '58, earned an associate's degree with a concentration in medical secretarial studies during a time when many women were not attending college.

Powers has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, working for major corporations such as Prudential Healthcare, Aetna, CIGNA Healthcare and EmblemHealth. She currently works as the global operations leader for the worldwide benefits division of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and is the former vice president of customer service for Independence Blue Cross from 2015-17.

Continually dedicated to giving back to her alma mater, Powers became of member of Rider's Board of Trustees in July. She is an anchor donor for the Women’s Giving Challenge, serves on Rider’s Health Care Management Advisory Council, is a frequent visitor and speaker on campus, and repeatedly supports the Annual Fund and the women's basketball team. Powers earned her Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a major in management and organizational behavior from Rider and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University. She also played both field hockey and basketball as a Rider Bronc.