2009 Headlines
Local hero and rising community leader to be honored on April 23
Felix Rouse, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs, awarded Wilbur Parker Distinguished Alumni Award by the Black Graduate Business Association
April 6, 2009 | Ithaca, NY | Felix Rouse, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark, NJ, and Johnson School alum, will receive the 2009 Wilbur Parker Distinguished Alumni Award. The award recognizes alumni who demonstrate outstanding professional achievement, commitment to their community, and who embody The Johnson School's shared values of mutual respect, collaboration, integrity and trust, pride and accountability, professionalism and investment in self.
Felix Rouse has dedicated his professional career to providing underprivileged minority youth with equal opportunity. Rouse was a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark and attributes much of his success to the early support he received from the organization. Rouse, who never knew his father and was taken from his mother by social workers at the age of two, found a sense of belonging and unconditional support at the Boys & Girls Club. After graduating from the Johnson School with his MBA in 2003, Rouse elected to forego a career in business to make having an impact in children's lives his top priority. Rouse is credited with turning around the organization, which had a $700,000 deficit when he arrived and declining youth membership. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark has now more than doubled its membership after four straight years of member growth, and has launched the first two school-based satellite sites in the organization's history. The organization is on more secure financial footing, and has seen its programs earn numerous regional and national awards.
"A lot of urban kids don't have anyone positive in their lives, or maybe have a single parent who's working hard but can't be there enough to provide everything their kids need," says Rouse. "Organizations like ours are there to step in and fill the void."
Wilbur Parker, for whom the award was named, was the first African-American graduate of the Johnson School, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, and the first African American CPA in New Jersey. He will also be in attendance at the event.
The award ceremony and reception will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on April 23 at the Hilton Newark Penn Station in the Essex Room. Mayor Cory Booker will be giving opening remarks. This annual event was made possible with the support of Accenture and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Johnson School.
