Elon University senior Miya Micole Stodghill, a business administration major from Decatur, Ga., has been named the recipient of the second annual Martha and Spencer Love Excellence in Business Leadership Award.
Recipients of the Love award are tasked with designing and completing a Love Business Leadership project grounded in one or more of the Elon Experiences during his or her senior year. The award funds undergraduate research, Study Abroad experiences and community service projects.
Stodghill’s research will focus on the effects of educating women in developing countries. She plans to build on existing research that has found that, while important to educate children of developing countries, it is equally vital to educate adult women who are more likely to use their education to teach future generations. Many younger students, Stodghill says, take their education to work in more developed nations.
Stodghill serves as an Elon Student Ambassador and is the executive vice president of the Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity. She is currently on her way to Ghana to work with the Impact movement, a ministry building spiritual movements within the African-American community and among people of African descent worldwide. The trip could lead her to return to Ghana during her senior year to focus exclusively on her research project.
If she does not return to Ghana to conduct her research, Miya plans to use her Love Award to conduct her research in India. In January 2009, inspired by the work on the Grameen Foundation, Stodghill plans to visit India with the Institute for Field Research Expeditions (IFRE) to teach women English, mathematics, business and computer skills.
“Miya’s academic achievements and a distinguished record of community service reflect the capabilities and servant-leadership orientation that the Love Award was designed to support,” said Scott Buechler, associate dean of the Love School of Business. “The project, targeting the education of women in communities undergoing economic development, will draw on Miya’s proven talents and help her make the kind of impact for which the Love Award was created.”
Stodghill, who aspires to own a chain of daycare centers, believes that educating the village’s women, who also serve as the teachers, will be a key component to the village’s sustained financial independence. “I’m excited to be able to use my own education to teach,” she said.
Stodghill’s mentor is Susan Manring, an associate professor of management. She is the daughter of James Stodghill of Decatur, Ga.