Scholarship Breakfast Brings In More Than $100,000

It’s coming soon: a day when you’ll be able to have a real-time conversation with someone speaking another language, and during the conversation your car will remind you that you forgot your keys at the office.

Technology visionary Krish Prabhu described the scenario as an example of life in the near future during the recent Naveen Jindal School of Management’s Scholarship Breakfast.

“Today, it’s sometimes six to nine months from the time we do something or think about an idea to the time that it shows up in your hands,” said Prabhu, president and CEO of AT&T Labs.

The time it takes for concepts and ideas to move to market will shrink in the future. Innovations are arriving at a pace that consumers want, Prabhu said. “It’s truly the consumer who is ultimately driving the pace of innovation.”

The Jindal School benefits from the faster tempo in corporate advances, Prabhu said. Companies recognize the need for collaborative involvement with students and the University to ensure a future workforce is trained to meet their needs.

A longtime supporter of both UT Dallas and the Jindal School, Prabhu is a life member of the UT Dallas Development Board and recent inductee into the Metroplex Technology Business Council’s Tech Titan Hall of Fame. He spoke to the audience of about 300 donors, students, alumni, faculty and staff at the Jindal School’s third Scholarship Breakfast, which was held Nov. 8. Since it began, the annual breakfast program has raised more than $300,000 and funded nearly 150 new scholarships.

This year, Ericsson and Southwest Securities Group co-sponsored the breakfast, which was also backed by 23 corporate supporters. The event raised $107,000 to create 46 new scholarships, which will be awarded during the spring semester.

The funds raised through the Scholarship Breakfast count toward the Jindal School’s $50 million campaign goal, as part of the University’s $200 million Realize the Vision: The Campaign for Tier One & Beyond. More than $25 million has been raised so far for the Jindal School.

At the start of the breakfast, Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul thanked those who supported the school’s scholarships and told the audience that the awards are critical to student success.

“The idea is that no student should ever be denied an education because they cannot afford it. If they are smart and they are hard-working, we should be able to provide them an education, and that’s what we’ll continue to work toward,” said Pirkul, who holds the Caruth Chair of Management at UT Dallas.

Inflation and state funding cuts for higher education have made it difficult for many students to afford public university costs, Pirkul said.

“A high-quality college education is essential, and if we’re not careful, we’re going to make even public education only available for the elite. We cannot afford to do that. Therefore, scholarships are critical for us, and we appreciate you for your support,” he said.

The goal of the breakfast is threefold — to raise scholarship funds, to give area business leaders a chance to hear and question other influential business leaders and to raise awareness about the quality of UT Dallas graduates.

Steve Allen, a partner at the accounting firm of Huselton, Morgan and Maultsby, said the breakfast provided executives with an opportunity to chat with students in a social environment.

“For a long time, we have viewed UTD as one of our top recruiting schools for the future team members and leaders of our firm,” Allen said. “Attending events like the scholarship breakfast gives our firm the opportunity to invest in our firm’s future leaders and the professional community as a whole.”