Scott Herndon (PS '03) enrolled in the School for Professional Studies in 1999 at age 39, after selling the business he had built to Honeywell. "At that point in my life, I had met a lot of my goals, both financially and for my life, but the one goal I hadn't met was completing my college education,"Herndon said. "I was still working on an employment contract for Honeywell, but not having a degree also was a social stigma."


From 1999 to 2003, Herndon juggled work, family and school while earning his SPS degree in organizational studies, with a minor in communication. "It was a taxing four years," he remembered. "There were lots of sacrifices that I and other students had to make to excel and get the most out of the program while earning our degrees." Herndon chose  organizational studies because he believed it would help with his goal of starting a new company. He knew that everything
from the oral presentation skills he developed to the leadership, accounting, human resources and organizational  psychology courses he took would hone his business skills. During the final two years of his studies, he began drawing on knowledge gained in his coursework to create the foundation for a new business. He wrote the actual business plan in an entrepreneurship class.

Today, Herndon Products - the company he planned while at SPS and founded after his graduation in 2003 - is a $100 million defense contractor.

In 2010-2011, for the second consecutive year, Herndon Products is sponsoring a scholarship for a student pursuing a bachelor's degree in organizational studies at the School for Professional Studies.

"As the business continues to succeed, I wanted to pay back the school by giving them a scholarship," Herndon said. "If I hadn't taken the time to go to school and write the business plan, I might not be where I am today."

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Source: Universitas, Fall 2010
Photo Credit: Chad Williams