{"id":5184,"date":"2013-03-26T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T20:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=5184"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:21:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:21:15","slug":"mccain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=5184","title":{"rendered":"Global Inspiration: McCain gift provides critical support for African and Afro-American studies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/dt>\n
Wendell McCain<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Wendell McCain had dreamed of attending Princeton, or maybe even Georgetown, since he was in the fifth grade.<\/p>\n

But when the North Mecklenburg High School graduate earned a Morehead Scholarship to Carolina, he never looked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of students here, and got just as great of an education as I would have at an Ivy League school,\u201d said McCain, who earned his economics degree in 1992. Living in an international student community at Carmichael dorm played a big role in his experience at UNC and later as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.<\/p>\n

Twenty years after graduating, McCain is committed to a global education more than ever.<\/p>\n

He recently established the McCain Family Fund for Excellence in the department of African and Afro-American studies, the department\u2019s single largest gift. It will provide faculty and students with critical funds for travel, research materials, technology and other resources needed for their work as scholars and educators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economics department was a huge influence on my career,\u201d said McCain, who mentioned professor emeritus Sandy Darity as a mentor. \u201cBut a gift to African and Afro-American studies makes a bigger impact and supports this important discipline. Africa is the world\u2019s most resource-rich continent. As a student of world markets, I know that the study of Africa is especially relevant in understanding our international markets. I also hope the gift inspires others to give back to the department.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gift is welcome news to its chair and 21 faculty members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncome from the fund will enable us to establish our first fellowships for faculty and majors, who will be selected through a competitive process,\u201d said Eunice Sahle, department chair.<\/p>\n

Reginald Hildebrand, the faculty member who will coordinate the awards, notes that the McCains are among the \u201cfirst families of freedom in North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWendell has been a pathbreaker in the world of global finance, and the fund that he established will further his family\u2019s commitment to learning and expanding opportunity for our students and faculty to conduct research, especially in North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain\u2019s inspiration for the greater good is a family tradition.<\/p>\n

Wendell\u2019s father, Franklin, now retired from a distinguished career as a chemist at Celanese Corp. in Charlotte, was only 17 when he entered the national spotlight as a civil rights activist. A member of the Greensboro Four, Franklin and three classmates from N.C. A&T University staged a two-day sit-in at the downtown Woolworth lunch counter in February 1960 after they were refused service because of the color of their skin. The sit-in launched similar protests nationwide, re-energizing the civil rights movement and forever ensuring Franklin\u2019s role in American history.<\/p>\n

Wendell, the middle son of Franklin and Bettye McCain, traveled widely abroad as a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been interested in traveling and learning about different cultures,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes you appreciate home that much more. It also allows us to understand how other economies operate.\u201d A family trip to Cape Verde, the island country and his wife\u2019s childhood home, in the coming months will include the couple\u2019s two young sons, both avid Tar Heel fans and already seasoned world travelers.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Carolina, McCain put in long hours with BankBoston, Lazard Fr\u00e8res and J.P. Morgan in Boston and New York as an investment banker. While the work led to a great lifestyle, it wasn\u2019t satisfying intellectually, he said.<\/p>\n

For that, McCain enrolled in Northwestern University\u2019s Kellogg School where he earned an M.B.A. and thrived in its entrepreneurial and collegial environment. It was ideal preparation for his work as a founding partner with Parish Capital, and more recently, Onset Capital Partners, another private equity firm he created in 2011 based in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

As McCain\u2019s career flourished, he created the Financial Futures Foundation with his brother Franklin Jr. and Parish Capital to introduce careers in the financial services industry to minority and female high school students, two groups vastly underrepresented in leadership positions in finance. UNC\u2019s Kenan-Flagler Business School is among the foundation\u2019s partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measure of a great life is the number of people you\u2019ve brought with you,\u201d said McCain. \u201cOur abilities give voice to those who need to be heard and understood, people who have not had the same opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Del Helton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendell McCain Wendell McCain had dreamed of attending Princeton, or maybe even Georgetown, since he was in the fifth grade. But when the North Mecklenburg High School graduate earned a Morehead Scholarship to Carolina, he never looked back. \u201cI was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of students here, and got just as great of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45855,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184\/revisions\/45855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}