Timeline

Kenan Scholars

Leadership Fellows expands to undergraduates and becomes the Kenan Scholars Program. Under Kenan Institute Director Greg Brown, the Institute pioneers a new approach to undergraduate student engagement: inviting emerging business leaders to explore the role of business in society and learn alongside leaders in business, policy, and academia tackling complex societal challenges. This move lays the foundation for today’s undergraduate scholar experience.

Building the Undergraduate Experience

Kim Allen joins as program director and establishes the undergraduate component as a co-curricular, competency-based scholars program emphasizing leadership, research, and cross-sector collaboration.

Investing in Scholar Development

Phil Hardy joins the program as scholar advisor, strengthening its commitment to scholar development through personalized guidance that helps students make informed choices, reflect meaningfully on their experiences, and grow personally and professionally.

Scholars Find Their Voice

The Scholar Leadership Council is established, creating a formal avenue for student voice, leadership, engagement, and community within the program.

An Undergraduate Focus

After more than 15 years, the MBA component concludes as the Kenan Institute focuses the program exclusively on undergraduate business majors and minors.

A Vision for Growth

Under the guidance of Charles ‘Chuck’ Lovelace, an external review recommends expanding the program and sharpening its focus on developing business leaders prepared to work across sectors to address complex economic and societal challenges.

The Cross-Sector Internship Takes Shape

Building on recommendations from the external review, the program transforms its public-sector internship into a cohort-based Cross-Sector Internship, creating a signature experience connecting scholars with organizations and challenges across sectors.

Advisory Council Established

The Luther Hodges Scholars Advisory Council is established, bringing together alumni and leaders from business, nonprofit, and civic life to advise, advocate for, and strengthen the program.

Deepening the Scholar Experience

The program continues to strengthen its internship partnerships, research opportunities, leadership programming, coaching, alumni engagement, and other developmental experiences, while a growing community of scholars and alumni extends the program's reach. This period marks growth and maturation.

Growing Interest in LHS

The program receives its largest applicant pool to date and undertakes a substantial review of its admissions process. At the same time, conversations begin about the curriculum's next evolution and the program's identity.

A Year of Strategic Renewal

As LHS marks ten years of serving undergraduate scholars, its most ambitious strategic planning effort to date brings together scholars, alumni, faculty, staff, Advisory Council members, Kenan Institute leadership, and external partners to consider the program's future.

That work is already shaping the scholar experience. Coursework is being viewed as one integrated developmental journey; research and inquiry are increasingly understood as tools for evidence-based leadership and decision-making; and the Cross-Sector Internship is becoming an intentional developmental laboratory built around meaningful experience and structured reflection.

The Next Chapter

Building on a decade of learning and growth, LHS looks toward deeper cross-sector partnerships, richer research experiences, stronger connections with the Kenan Institute, Undergraduate Business Program, LHS alumni community, and broader impact as a distinctive model for undergraduate cross-sector leadership development.