In 1862, with the Civil War raging, an idea came to Ezra Mason: open a commercial school in Providence to serve returning veterans needing a trade. In January 1863, the month President Abraham Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation, Mason became resident principal of a new school, a franchise of what was then called Bryant & Stratton National Commercial College.
The old Bryant & Stratton school in Providence has come a long way in the past 133 years. Today, Bryant College is considered one of the top business specialty schools in the country. Its 2,400 full-time and 700 part-time students are drawn from 34 states and 37 countries. After they graduate, they go to work for such companies as Chase Manhattan Bank, MCI Telecommunications, Nabisco, Oxford Health Plans, Pitney Bowes, Pratt Whitney, Texas Instruments, U.S. Surgical Corp., and many others.
Two major developments helped fuel this growth. One was the college's move 25 years ago to its present 320-acre campus, donated in large part by Tupperware magnate Earl S. Tupper, who was impressed by the school's programs.
The second development was a more recent effort to upgrade the school's already outstanding faculty and academic programs. In the past five years, Bryant has made its programs more efficient, hired 55 new faculty -- the majority of which with an earned Ph.D. -- and has been accredited by the prestigious American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). With its AACSB certification, Bryant now joins the likes of Harvard, Duke, Chicago, UCLA and other highly distinguished international schools of business.
But it isn't only the academic community that has benefited from the college's efforts. Bryant has a strong presence in the corporate community through its five centers which operate under an umbrella called CIBED (the Center for International Business and Economic Development). These centers train and other support roughly 7,000 business managers and executives annually.
The college also has several partnerships with government which help the business community. Through a partnership with the federal Small Business Administration, it operates the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center, offering free consulting and low-cost seminars to more than 1,000 small business owners annually.
Its Rhode Island Export Assistance Center is arguably the chief center in the country for thousands of companies to receive export assistance each year.
Another center, the Institute for Family Enterprise, helps family-owned businesses iron out their unique issues, such as succession.
And just this year, in a joint venture with telecommunications giant NYNEX, the college opened a Telecommunications Technology Center through which small businesses in the state can receive free consulting on telecommunications-related issues.
The beautiful campus has become a selling point for students: surveys show that 85 percent of the high school students who visit the campus end up enrolling there. But it has other quality-of-life considerations. The campus has a vibrant social life, with many students joining clubs or other organizations. Students are also heavily involved in community service activities such as a Seniors Prom Night for local senior citizens.
Classrooms and offices are in an ultramodern, all-glass Unistructure, while the nearby Bryant Center contains student lounges and student-operated restaurants and shops in a mall-like atmosphere.
For 133 years, Bryant has strived to remain true to its motto: "Education for business leadership." Employers increasingly attest that its students represent a value-added investment.
And the future for the college looks even brighter, now that mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments has decided to locate a major office center across the road from the college's front gate.
