Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Working on these projects in real-life lab or business settings gives you more insight into what’s most valuable, most important.
By Micah Mertes
Ashley Homecgoy, BSBA'24, chose Creighton for many reasons. First and foremost was her scholarship.
Homecgoy was a member of the Scott Scholars, the University’s premier merit-based scholarship program. The Scott Scholarship provides full tuition, food and housing, and opportunities to connect with and learn from the Omaha business community.
Homecgoy was a bit unusual for a Scott Scholar. Like the rest of her cohort, she was a Heider College of Business student (majoring in Business Intelligence and Analytics). But she was also a College of Arts and Sciences student (majoring in data science). She found some of her most meaningful Creighton experiences where her two majors converged.
Homecgoy’s variety of Creighton experiences is too extensive to go into in detail, but here are a few highlights:
She conducted data-science-based cancer research with physics professor Andrew Ekpenyong, PhD; assisted with a machine learning analysis of fashion trends on Twitter; worked on the Creighton Apple Store’s iJay Practicum data analytics team; and redesigned a virtual reality experience for the School of Dentistry to help build empathy with patients.
“Working on these projects in real-life lab or business settings gives you more insight into what’s most valuable, most important,” she said. “Our projects are vetted by professors, of course. But we also have the agency to guide our own work and try new things, which has been so fulfilling.”
Like the majority of Creighton students, Homecgoy — from Plainfield, Illinois — wasn’t born in Nebraska. She was among the nearly 80% of Creighton students who come from out of state each year. Nearly half of those students stay in Nebraska after graduation.
Homecgoy said her respective colleges have given her the flexibility to explore everything that fascinates her. The Scott Scholars program itself gave her new things to be fascinated about.
Through the program, she’s heard from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, received mentorship from fellow “Scotts” and learned how to frame her work in ways beneficial to the business world — and the world in general.
“I’m so grateful for these experiences and for my scholarship, which made every one of them possible,” Homecgoy said.
Scott Scholars Program
The merit-based scholarship program — established by the Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation — launches the careers of future business leaders, offering them full financial support and opportunities to network with top industry experts while honing their entrepreneurial skills.
Each year, the Scott Scholars awards 15 new top academic recruits entering the Heider College of Business, with a total of 60 scholars enrolled at a time.
These students participate in a wide range of volunteer and internship opportunities throughout the community. The Heider College of Business partners with Omaha businesses such as Union Pacific, Lutz, Smith-Kroeger, KPMG, Deloitte, Mutual of Omaha, Gallup and more.
The results speak for themselves. The Scott Scholars boast a 100% 4-year graduation rate, and 96% complete 25 or more service hours each semester.
“The Scott Scholars program not only positively impacts the lives of the individual students. It elevates Omaha’s business landscape,” said Terry Fischer, director of the Scott Scholars program
