Women now constitute the largest bloc of a corporate leadership program at the University of Oklahoma male-dominated business school for the first time in recent years.

The female heavy cohort of 64 students was added to Price College’s JCPenney Leadership Program in September 2017.

“The program has 168 members and we now have about 20 more females than males” Maggie Hayes, a finance and accounting student who is a member and works as an office assistant for JCPenney’s Leadership Center, said. “In recent years, we’ve seen more females applying to the program than males. So female membership has slightly increased because of that.”

The leadership program, established in 1988, aims to bridge the gap between the corporate world and the undergraduate business school.

At the beginning of each school year, sophomores and juniors in the business college are eligible to apply for the leadership program. The competitive application process includes a series of essays and interviews.

According to Melanie Alderman, assistant to the JCPenney Leadership Program director, fewer than half of the 150 applicants were accepted into the leadership program this fall.

“It represents about the top one percent of Price College students” she said.

Alderman says current freshman and sophomores interested in applying next fall for the 2018-19 JCPenney Leadership Program should anticipate the application deadline to be near the end of August 2018 but can visit the program’s website for more information regarding application details.