There’s a new face in the Dr. Cornell A. Bell Business Opportunity Program (BOP).
Crenel Francis Jr., formerly the program and outreach coordinator for Purdue Agriculture, joined BOP in August as associate director of diversity initiatives. His responsibilities include on-campus student recruiting and helping to plan and develop the BOP Future Scholars Camp, which gives top high school students from across the country an opportunity to explore the world of business.
“From a recruiting standpoint, I’m primarily working with students in other exploratory and diversity programs at Purdue who might want to consider a business degree,” he says. “I’m also recruiting underrepresented students to the Daniels School’s graduate programs.”
In his previous role at Purdue, Francis coordinated marketing of the Mentoring@Purdue Summer Scholars Program (SSP) on various social media platforms, as well as planned and executed the SSP for 1890 Historically Black Land-Grant University students to engage with faculty, explore research opportunities, and consider graduate studies.
Francis also led the Cargill-Purdue Agribusiness Science Academy (C-PASA) High School Camp, which exposes students to the interconnections of agriculture and the diversity of career opportunities within agribusiness and communication, biological sciences and engineering, and plant and environmental sciences.
“I first learned about BOP while running the C-PASA camp a couple summers ago,” he says. “I met my predecessor, Darien Thompson, and Darren Henry, along with some of the students in the BOP ’22 class, but never saw myself transitioning from Ag to the School of Business. I really enjoyed working with students, though, so when Darien left, I reached out to Darren about the opportunity and realized that BOP was where I wanted to be.”
Francis earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural business in 2020 from Florida A&M University, where he served as a resident assistant and completed internships with Monsanto Company and Land ‘O Lakes. He received a master’s degree in agricultural sciences, education, and communications from Purdue’s Graduate School in 2022.
“Crenel brings much needed experience and professionalism to the program,” says Darren Henry, managing director of BOP. “With Crenel onboard, I have no doubt BOP will position itself to remain one of the best student success programs in American business schools. His knowledge and past experiences will allow us to thrive from personalized student recruitment to innovative programming and ultimately graduation.”
