From right: Joseph Aoun, dean of USC College, joins USC College donor and Board of Councilor member Janice Bryant Howroyd (center) in a discussion about careers with USC student Anna Clara Soares.
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Janice Bryant Howroyd Gives $10 Million to USC College
Nationally recognized businesswoman’s gift to increase access to higher education
By Eva Emerson
March 2005
The College of Letters, Arts & Sciences at the University of
Southern California announced today that Los Angeles entrepreneur
Janice Bryant Howroyd will give $10 million to support student aid
programs at the College.
“Janice Howroyd’s generous gift will provide access for students who
could not otherwise afford a college education,” said Joseph Aoun, Dean
of USC College. “Her exemplary achievements and dedication to support
education will serve as a role model for all of us in the College
community.”
Howroyd, the owner and chief executive officer of ACT-1, a personnel
services company based in Torrance, Calif., was recently appointed to
the USC College Board of Councilors.
The gift establishes an endowment for the Janice Bryant Howroyd Fund
for Student Aid in the College. Student awardees will be chosen based
on a combination of economic need and academic achievement. The awards
will be available to both undergraduate and graduate students.
“My gift is meant to support Dean Aoun’s vision of what USC College
will become,” said Howroyd. “Under his dynamic leadership, I think the
College has no set boundaries on what it can achieve.”
In her own career, Howroyd’s achievements have yet to reach any limit.
Born in North Carolina, Howroyd began ACT-1 in 1978, using a small loan
to open a single office in Beverly Hills that focused on serving the
entertainment industry. Today, ACT-1 is the largest certified
woman-minority owned staffing agency company in the U.S. With branch
offices located across the country, ACT-1 employs some 300 full-time
workers and manages the placement of more than 65,000 temporary workers
in the entertainment, technical, clerical, engineering, accounting and
professional services industries.
In the last five years, Howroyd has diversified her business, and in
addition to the core human resources services, the ACT-1 Group now
provides technical services, creative communications and travel
services, and owns California National University for Advanced Studies,
an accredited university geared toward working adults. ACT-1 also
offers leading-edge solutions through Agile-1, its workforce technology
and management division, and through A-Check America, a
background-check and drug-screening company. In 2003, the ACT-1 Group
was ranked as the largest African American-owned business in its
category by Black Enterprise magazine. ACT-1 projected more than $520
million in revenues in 2004.
Essence magazine has featured Howroyd in its book, 50 of the Most
Inspiring African Americans. Howroyd was the first African
American to be named one of the 50 Leading Woman Entrepreneurs in the
World by the Star Group, among many other honors. In addition to
the USC College Board of Councilors, she currently serves as a board
member of the Economic Development Corporation of L.A. County, L.A.
Urban League, Loyola Marymount University and the Women’s Leadership
Board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University, among many others. She is featured regularly in the
national media, including television appearances on “Oprah” and
“The Tavis Smiley Show.” She has written columns on business,
employment, entrepreneurship and other issues for a number of print and
online publications.
With her gift to USC College, Howroyd is building an impressive record
of supporting education. She has long supported scholarships and
programs designed to encourage black youth to pursue their educational
goals. In 2004 she agreed to co-chair a $100 million capital campaign
at her alma mater, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State
University, and then pledged a gift of $10 million to the school, one
of the largest alumni donations ever made to a historically black
college or university.
Howroyd said that simply being in business in Los Angeles, you become
familiar with the USC community. “Many of my customers are USC
graduates or have connections to ‘SC, so over the years I’d naturally
developed a respect for the university,” she said. But it was when
Howroyd’s children became students at USC that she and her husband,
Bernard Howroyd, joined the Trojan Family. Their daughter, Katharyn,
majored in political science in the College, and their son, Brett,
studies business. “Our family is very closely knit—you don’t get our
kids without getting us, too,” she said.
Howroyd quickly caught the Trojan spirit. She and her husband joined
the USC Parents’ Council, which oversees the USC Parents’
Association. She also served as the honorary chair of the USC
Black Alumni Association’s 26th Annual Alumni Awards and Scholarship
Benefit last year.
To her, what makes USC stand out is its combination of strong academics
with so many other student opportunities—a nationally prominent sports
program, a diverse student body, a choice of social activities,
politically active groups, and, something that Howroyd considers core
to any well-rounded education, a strong commitment to community
service. “I very much value the diversity of ethnicity, thought, goals
and opportunity that the Dean has fostered in the College,” she said.
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