Graduate Research Assistantships are awarded to students showing particular academic promise and leadership potential. Compensation includes full or partial tuition coverage, health insurance, and a stipend per semester. Awards are typically made during the admission process before students begin the MBA program and Graduate Research Assistants work closely with faculty and partner companies on applied research projects up to 20 hours per week for the academic school year.

SCM Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) program

The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) program provides an opportunity for graduate supply chain candidates to receive real-world exposure to supply chain problems facing SCRC corporate business partners. SCRC GRAs gain valuable knowledge and experience by leveraging faculty resources from the Poole College of Management, the Jenkins Graduate School of Management, the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative and corporate supply chain practitioners and professionals. SCRC GRAs make a year-long commitment to research, analysis, communication, and implementation of solutions to complex, global supply chain challenges faced in all supply management disciplines. Successful SCRC GRAs create a highly valued pool from which corporate business partners recruit top performers to build a talent pipeline of future supply chain leaders.

Supply Chain Graduate Research Assistants are unique in the following areas:

1. The centerpiece of the program is a mentoring relationship with a supply chain faculty member or a supply chain executive from an SCRC corporate business partner. The student will be assigned one mentor per semester from the faculty or a corporate partner’s leadership team, who will coach and mentor them throughout their tenure in the program. The mentor will be assigned at the beginning of each semester and, in the case of a corporate partner, an introductory meeting will be held at the partner’s office for the student to meet with members of the partner’s leadership team.
2. The GRA student works directly with an assigned faculty member or corporate partner to identify key supply chain areas in need of improvement and may be required to develop position papers and recommendations based on primary and secondary research. The student collaborates with the assigned faculty mentor, corporate partner and/or the faculty of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative to select and outline research monographs.
3. Research projects will be managed in conjunction with the student’s studies and consistent with traditional scholarship duties and expectations. If assigned to work with a corporate partner, the student will be required to regularly attend on-site meetings and activities at the partner site; however, some of the work may be done remotely.