CULVERHOUSE STUDENTS LIFT UP TUSCALOOSA’S
OFF-CAMPUS COMMUNITY
BY JEANIE MCLEAN
Anew outreach initiative at he Culverhouse College of Commerce is helping the
unemployed and underemployed build
career-worthy skills and teaching young
children that business school can be fun
and cool.
Accounting lecturer Lisa McKinney,
CPA, has a big imagination and big heart.
But even McKinney could not envision
the full potential of Culverhouse’s new
Learning Initiative and Financial Training
program launched in August. McKinney
and David Hose, an accountancy
graduate student, brainstormed on how
Tuscaloosa’s off-campus community
and from there, the LIFT program was
born. They have not looked back and
they continue to find ways to improve
the program.
The two also could not anticipate
participants’ eager response. They did
not foresee how naturally Culverhouse
student volunteers would work with
diverse attendees from elementary
school students all the way to 65-year-
olds.
“We want to teach them while they
are young that business can be fun and
cool,” McKinney says. “So that’s why we
are reaching out to these young children.
Some of the adults want to hone their
skills with Word or Excel to be more
marketable in the job market, while
others may want to be able to create a
brochure for their church or event”
McKinney is still amazed, after
a few months into the program, as
she watches Culverhouse College
of Commerce students coach 16- to
