Ericka Carrasco’s legacy at her alma mater, John Brown University, did not stop in 2011, the year in which she graduated in international business and marketing.
Originally from Comayagua, Honduras, Carrasco completed her bachelor’s at JBU as a Walton scholar. A decade later, she was elected to the institution’s board of trustees representing the Walton International Scholarship and the Walton Family Foundation.
She received the good news in 2019 when she visited the institution for its centennial homecoming celebration. “I specifically traveled to JBU to participate in some activities with the business department and the scholarship,” she recalled. “Before that, [JBU] President Chip Pollard called me and told me I had been nominated to be a trustee. I told him I would pray about it first, and after some time talking to God, I emailed him back expressing my interest.”
After a rigorous process, the board presented the nominees and voted for Carrasco as the new Walton trustee at the beginning of 2020. Due to the pandemic and closed country borders, Carrasco could not join trustee meetings in person until late Sept. 2021 during homecoming weekend.
The duties of a trustee member are anything but easy. As a trustee, one of the main goals is to advance the college’s mission, tradition, values and reputation. As representative of the Walton scholarship, Carrasco’s role is to make sure Walton scholars thrive in college and contribute to campus with their gifts and talents.
“Being a trustee means being someone who is willing to invest time in attending annual meetings; there are some retreats that the board organizes throughout the year, too,” Carrasco said. “You have to be committed and passionate about higher education. You have to have a heart for helping others.”
According to Carrasco, nominees must reflect God in their daily lives, be an example of integrity and stay connected with their community. “I graduated from JBU in 2011, but I never detached myself from the institution,” she said. “I have been involved in the recruitment process for the Walton scholarship in Honduras, and I am always updated on what happens at JBU.”
While Carrasco is not the first Walton scholar to join the board, she is the first female Walton alumna to be elected as a trustee. The need for a Walton representative arose after Don Walker, at the time president of Arvest Bank in Arkansas and Oklahoma, proposed that the Walton scholarship be represented in honor of the hundreds of Walton scholars who have graduated from the institution since the program started in 1985.
“The Walton scholarship pours so much into students’ lives and into the institution itself,” Carrasco further explained. “[Having a Walton trustee] is giving us a seat at the table and being part of such an important aspect of university governance.”
After productive in-person meetings for the first time, Carrasco described the board as a space to make very important decisions. Many short-term and long-term goals may come to mind when working to make the university a better place for the student body. However, Carrasco’s main goal for now is to understand what all higher education entails. “It is one thing to see education as a student, but when you look at it from a financial and academic standpoint, it is a different thing,” Carrasco said. “It is much more complex than one imagines.”
Besides getting acquainted with the higher education ins and outs, Carrasco intends to use her experience as a Walton student to improve the experiences of students in the program. But as Carrasco works to impact the lives of JBU students from the Central America and Mexico regions, she said her life is also impacted both professionally and spiritually.
“I have grown a lot from my role as a trustee, especially because of the environment of the meetings,” she said. “At first, I felt intimidated because all the other members have years of experience and have successful business. But I was shocked to see how all the members are very down to earth and humble.”
While Carrasco’s journey as a trustee is barely starting, her purpose to make JBU a more welcoming place for Walton scholars is a promise that she intends to uphold.