The Walton International Scholarship Program recruits students from eight different countries to academically equip them to have a positive impact on their countries.
During the 28 years of the program, Harding has been one of the three universities to have Walton scholars.
In 1985, Sam Walton and his wife Helen started a scholarship program which sends students from Central America and Mexico to learn about the benefits of a democratic government and free enterprise in the United States. The program provides an opportunity to complete a degree to students with impressive academic performance and limited financial resources. Some of the scholarship benefits include tuition, transportation, books and room and board.
Sam Walton in his book “Made in America,” said: “We got the idea while we were traveling around down in that part of the world. And when we learned that the then-Soviet Union and Cuba had programs to teach their values to kids from other places, we decided Americans ought to be doing the same sort of thing with our values.”
According to Chancellor Emeritus Cliff Ganus, president of the university at that time, Sam Walton met with him in Little Rock to discuss the scholarship. The program was initiated in May of the same year with a donation from the Walton family to three faith-based universities in Arkansas: Harding University, John Brown University and University of the Ozarks.
In total, the three universities have about 180 students enrolled every year from each of the seven countries in Central America and Mexico. Nicaragua was added to the recruitment process about two years after the program began at Harding.
“I remember visiting with one of the (Nicaraguan political leaders),” Ganus said. “I spent about 40 minutes with him, telling him about the program, what we were going to do and so on. And he said ‘You are the first university to come and offer our students scholarships to go to America; and I’ll let them come.'”
Ronald Johnson, the director of John Brown University’s Walton International Scholarship Program, said in his book “Our Story,” that more than 1,250 students have graduated since the beginning of the program.
The vision of the program is to give back. Currently, alumni from the program hold a wide variety of leadership positions in businesses in their respective countries.
According to Nicky Boyd, director of international student services, many of the alumni have committed to develop programs to help their communities. Others have started companies providing jobs to people.
Around campus, the recipients of the scholarship are best known as “Waltons.” They have unique stories to tell about their lives and how the scholarship changed their lives.
For more information visit: www.wispweb.org
