The most prestigious scholarship at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is the Thomas F. Keller Scholarship, which is awarded to a select group of admitted students and covers full tuition costs plus additional funds to help support the recipient in leading a community development project. Keller Scholars are recognized for excellence in academics and their commitment to improving their communities through leadership and service, and as a group, represent the diversity of the total Fuqua community.
History
The scholarship is named in honor of Dr. Thomas F. Keller, dean of The Fuqua School of Business from 1974 to 1995. Through Keller’s visionary leadership, Fuqua transformed from a small regional business school into a leading global center for management education and research.
Cohort Activities
In addition to the award, Keller Scholars take part in the following cohort activities during their time in the program:
- Attend regular Keller Scholars meetings, both individual and as a cohort, with the Assistant Dean of the Daytime MBA program.
- Access to your preferred sector director in our Career Management Center for career coaching prior to the official start of school.
- Identify and implement a Keller Scholars cohort project focused on leadership and service during your time on campus.
- Meet annually with Dr. Thomas F. Keller.
- Serve as a mentor to first year Keller scholars during your second year of the program.
- Represent the Keller Scholars program in admissions recruiting events and other business school functions.
Meet a Keller Scholar
Meet Kevin Rahill, a second-year Duke MBA student and Keller Scholar. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he double-majored in Accountancy and Anthropology, Kevin is a CPA and CFA Charterholder. At Notre Dame, Kevin participated in the Special Olympics Club, Beta Alpha Psi and Alpha Lamba Honor Societies, and lettered four times in Varsity Swimming. He was awarded the St. Joseph Valley Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award and the William G Barth Award for his outstanding academic and athletic contributions as well his dedication to community service.
After graduation, Kevin was the director for Open Arms, a South African orphanage serving children impacted by the HIV epidemic. Subsequently, Kevin spent five years at PwC in financial services assurance and deals advisory focusing on health care private equity due diligence. During that time he also engineered partnerships with several Chicago Public Schools to teach financial literacy programming to students before entering the Duke MBA program at Fuqua.
At Fuqua, Kevin has been actively involved with FuquaVision, Health Sector Management, and was a Blue Devil Weekend Co-Chair. Kevin is a Fuqua Special Olympics co-president, serves on the Consulting Club Cabinet, and is a CASE i3 Fellow. For his MBA summer internship, Kevin worked in impact investing with Y Analytics, a subsidiary of The Rise Fund, and also interned in strategy consulting with McKinsey.