East Central University senior business major Andrea McKinney won a $5,000 Paulsen Award Scholarship recently at the 2013 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup competition in Oklahoma City.
McKinney, a senior from Sand Springs, received the award by virtue of having the fortitude to become involved with Oklahoma’s economic development, to encourage students to become more involved with business and entrepreneurial aspects, to introduce the resources and opportunities available for developing a career in the field of entrepreneurism and to develop a conduit in retaining these future business leader in creating home grown businesses and strengthening the state’s economic development.
ECU was competing in the Governor’s Cup for the first time and one its two teams advanced to the final round of competition.
Besides having a great opportunity to apply skills that they have learned the past few years from college, the students learned from feedback from local supporters, received and applied feedback from competition judges from each round of the competition, networked with business leaders and students from across the state and attended an awards banquet at the Bricktown Events Center.
McKinney has also achieved the 2012-2013 Distinguished Graduate Award for the ECU School of Business. She was also a member of the ECU cross country team in which she earned a First Team All-Great American Conference Award for a fifth-place finish last fall.