Leadership Round Table
Ventures, our belief is that community service should be employee-driven. The company’s Golden Door Scholars program was founded a year ago, but it started to take shape five years earlier. I’ve known a terrific young man since he was 6 years old. In his senior year of high school, he was ranked No. 2 in his class but had no plans for college because of the cost — he was undocumented and didn’t qualify for in-state tuition or financial aid. There are more than 1 million undocumented kids younger than 18 in the country. Less than 5% of them will enroll in college,
and 50% drop out of high school. Sure, their parents broke the law, but why are we punishing their kids? So I put him through college, and he earned chemistry and computer-science degrees and a minor in math. He will make his life, his family’s life and our country better. Then I realized these kids couldn’t get jobs because of a law forcing them to leave the country for 10 years. Last July, President Barack Obama signed a law that allows them to get a work permit. I remember reading that news with tremendous joy. So I donated some money to send
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more to college, and we started Golden Door. We had 500 applicants, and 60 of them had a GPA of more than 4.0. We invited the top 20 in hopes of picking five, but we couldn’t. We’re helping 13 freshmen. We are doing a second round, so I’m matching up to $1 million in donations because the need is that great. I’m humbled by what they have overcome and accomplished but also by their aspirations. Qubein: About 35 North Carolina institutions of higher learning formed the Campus Compact, which promotes service learning within its members and