HSHS grad selected as Columbia Fellow
A Hot Springs World Class High School and Columbia University graduate will return to the university’s business school this fall with distinction.
Christopher Perkins was recently selected as a Columbia Fellow and will receive an award of $40,000 for his first year of tuition expenses in the Master of Business Administration program. He is the son of Ruby and Willie D. Per- kins Jr. The award is renewable for a second year provided strong academic standards are achieved.
Columbia Business School’s institutional fellowship program, Columbia Fellows, “recognizes select entering students who have demonstrated the potential to lead the world’s enterprises,” according to Columbia. The recipients of the fellowship have proven themselves to be innovators, leaders and creative thinkers in their professional, academic and extracurricular activities.
“The Columbia MBA program provides an incomparable infrastructure to promote the personal and professional development of students. I’m familiar with the MBA program as I was privileged to take a couple of business school courses during my senior year as an undergraduate,” Perkins said.
“That familiarity, coupled with the extensive alumni networks and professional resources at the disposal of Columbia MBA students will, I believe, engender a productive environment in which I can grow and flourish. Moreover, the opportunities that many, if not all, MBA students seek are in one way or another connected to New York City. It’s an added benefit to know that many of those opportunities and accompanying relationships are only a subway ride away.”
Perkins said he was originally drawn to Columbia due to its prestigious alumni and the connections offered through the university in
New York City. Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus is located in Manhattan. He graduated from Hot Springs in 2010 in the top 5 percent of his class and received a Gates Millennium Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Honestly, I look forward to confronting and overcoming the challenges that are germane to Columbia and business school in general, as well as fully capitalizing on the opportunity God gave me,” Perkins said. “Hopefully, my efforts in that regard will be rewarded and I can make my family and my hometown proud in the process.”
The Columbia College Alumni-Sponsored Student Internship Program began in 2012, and Perkins was one of the first students chosen to participate. He and Samantha Peltz were placed in the office of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr.
Their work was featured on the summer cover story of the university magazine, Columbia College Today, in 2013. The publication is distributed throughout the campus, as well as to alumni and friends of the university.
Perkins was a pre-law graduate in 2014 when he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History. His work with Greenaway helped him obtain a position at Barclays Capital, an international investment bank, while he was still in school.
Barclays Investment Bank offered Perkins employment after he graduated. He was an analyst for his first two years with the company before he was named assistant vice president in August.
“In the short term, I want to move into an elevated area of investment banking and gain greater exposure to clients,” Perkins said. “Long term, I hope to evolve into an influential professional within the industry while also starting some of my own ventures. An MBA can grant me the tools and positioning to accomplish both.”