UMSL marketing student Sumedha Rao received the SCORE Scholarship on May 8.

The University of Missouri–St. Louis awarded the inaugural SCORE scholarship May 8 in the amount of $1,000 to marketing and Pierre Laclede Honors College student Sumedha Rao.

Frank Fu,  associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at UMSL, worked with Rajiv Gupta, outreach chair of the SCORE UNIVERSITY and past chairman of SCORE, to create this new student opportunity. The award will be given yearly.

St. Louis SCORE is a nonprofit organization that offers free business counseling and resources, low-cost workshops and free business services to small businesses in need.

Perry Drake, assistant teaching professor of marketing at UMSL, arranged for the scholarship to be awarded during a visit to Bonfyre, a new St. Louis startup. The Bonfyre app was used during UMSL’s State of Digital Media Marketing Conference in April.