UA Little Rock Dedicates USAble Life Classroom for Business Students
Dozens of university leaders, faculty, students, alumni, and business leaders gathered to celebrate the dedication of a newly renovated classroom that will enhance the learning environment for future business leaders at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Thanks to the generosity of USAble Life, the classroom will have the most up-to-date equipment and technology to benefit students in the School of Business. USAble Life has provided a $25,000 donation to sponsor the classroom for five years.
“With this newly sponsored classroom, they are making a meaningful difference for us, our community, and our students,” Provost Ann Bain said. “Your generous investment in our students and university will help keep the School of Business in the forefront in preparing our students for success in the workforce for years to come.”
John Moran, chief financial officer at USAble Life, recalls looking over the classroom months ago and thinking that it would be a good opportunity to invest in the education of Arkansas’s business students.
“We were looking for a way to give back to this organization,” Moran said. “We’re proud to have local ties, and that is why we are proud of what we do here at UA Little Rock. Our commitment to this organization remains. We have some great alumni from UA Little Rock working at USAble Life, and it certainly proves what this organization can do for the community.”
This classroom is the latest in a series of educational spaces that have been renovated in partnership with business and community partners across central Arkansas. The USAble Life Classroom is the first classroom dedication in the Reynolds Business Building.
The USAble Life classroom is one of the larger classrooms in Reynolds, and it prepares students for careers in accounting, finance, marketing, management, business information systems, and more.
USAble Life values the quality education and workforce preparation provided by the School of Business. The organization currently employs 52 UA Little Rock alumni as employees.
“Let me compliment UA Little Rock on almost 100 years of impacting this community and producing some of the great team members that we’ve hired,” said Jason Mann, chairman of the board of directors of USAble Life. “We thank you for the partnership and look forward to working together for many years to come.”
USAble Life has a long history of supporting UA Little Rock dating back to 1996. In 2021, the company established an endowed scholarship to benefit first-generation students in the School of Business. This year’s USAble Life Endowed Scholarship recipient, Sathi Gulledge, an MBA student, attended the ceremony.
“Sathi works as a marketing manager for a startup concert organization and promotion company in Little Rock who is planning on launching their first concert project this summer,” said Michael Johnson, director of development and external relations at UA Little Rock. “She has the ultimate goal of opening her own marketing agency for small businesses, creating job opportunities for others. This scholarship affirms her dedication and motivates her to continue her dreams.”
This donation is a part of the Centennial Campaign, the university’s capital campaign with the goal of raising $250 million by UA Little Rock’s centennial anniversary in 2027. So far, the campaign has raised $192 million. The donation is a part of the living and learning environment pillar. Visit https://ualr.edu/centennial/ for more information.
“At UA Little Rock, we are focused on enhancing our living and learning environments to ensure that students are learning in an environment that meets their needs and has the latest innovation and technology,” Bain said. “When students have great spaces to live and learn, they build better connections, have better learning outcomes, and are better equipped for success.”
