Penn State University's SMEAL College of Business has announced the David and Jennifer Kurtz MBA Scholarship, a $50,000 award for prospective MBA students. The scholarship was created to encourage future business leaders to join SMEAL's MBA program.
This contribution was triggered by recent conversations with Dean Whiteman about making a difference to the MBA program. The David and Jennifer Kurtz MBA Scholarship will contribute towards For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students – a campaign to raise $2 billion in funding by 2014 for Penn State University.
The goals of the campaign are guaranteeing access and opportunity for students, honors education enhancement, student experience enrichment, building up of faculty strength, nurturing creativity and discovery, and finally, sustaining the Penn's tradition of top quality. But the overriding priority is to ensure that the Penn State degree remains affordable while achieving these goals. The vision is to make Penn State the complete, student-centered research university in USA.
Reflecting on this, David J. Kurtz appealed to other Smeal MBAs to make similar gifts to support the initiative. David graduated from SMEAL with an MBA in 1992, starting his career in corporate finance, commercial lending and capital markets, working for Continental Bank and US Airways. Soon, the Entrepreneurial spirit took over. David was a partner, and product manager at FNX Limited - a start-up capital markets software firm. Later, he found success in a staffing and recruitment firm, Management Recruiters of Plymouth Meeting. Currently, he is the Managing Director of KMS Capital Group, a private equity investment firm, which also serves as the family office. He is also an angel investor, actively helping more than 20 IT start-ups in the Mid-Atlantic area. David is also a Kurtz Family Foundation member as well as the William Penn Charter School Alumni Society board member.
Learn more about Penn State SMEAL MBA program