Rider student wins $10,000 scholarship, named future supply chain leader

Senior Nunana Honutse earned the John Galt Solutions' $10,000 Scholarship for Future Supply Chain Leaders. The global supply chain management major was selected out of 135 undergraduate students.

Honutse says the award came as a welcome surprise during a particularly difficult year.

"I was not expecting to win this scholarship because I have received a lot of rejections this past year so imagine my surprise when I received the call," she says. "Working two jobs while going to school full time is stressful so I am grateful to the John Galt Foundation for recognizing me and awarding me with this scholarship."

Honutse is the second Rider student to earn the $10,000 scholarship. Senior Lillian DeMarco became the first student to win the award in 2019. 

John Galt Solutions' CEO Anne Omrod says the scholarship committee was particularly impressed with Honutse's dedication to her education. 

"Her hard work, combined with her academic dedication to supply chain and passion for making a positive difference in the world, made us certain that granting this scholarship would help a gifted and compassionate student achieve her goals,” Omrod says. 

Honutse has numerous goals for her future. Foremost, she hopes to use her background in supply chain to make a difference in her home country, Ghana, where food insecurity runs rampant. She dreams of one day building a food bank or community center for those in need. She also strives to offer similar scholarship opportunities for students in the future.

"My goal is to eventually become a business owner and company executive, to create a scholarship fund to help students, and to use my platform to provide a voice for minorities, especially Africans like myself who are often marginalized," she says. 

Honutse first became interested in supply chain management during her last year at Mercer County Community College. After her adviser introduced her to the field, she quickly found her passion for it and transferred to Rider. 

"One of the things that I love about supply chain is that it has a combination of different majors," she says. "It is a very diverse field that includes other disciplines such as marketing and finance. My interests in supply chain are what drove me to pursue a minor in business analytics because technology and supply chain go hand in hand."

Honutse says Rider has thoroughly prepared her for her future in supply chain management. She credits her professors, coursework, events with industry professionals and leadership opportunities through Rider's Global Supply Chain Association. 

"At Rider, I am not just a shadow in the bunch; I am seen and listened to," she says. 

Already on her way to beginning her professional career, Honutse has secured a full-time job offer from Amazon after graduation as an area manager. She also has plans to begin her master's in the fall.