Through its Custom Solutions, the Darla Moore Executive Education program regularly designs and runs special programs to help specific companies and organizations address their particular challenges.
What it does for the South Carolina Bankers Association is different. It hosts the South Carolina Bankers School.
But while ExecEd hosts the summer program and provides logistical support, it’s entirely the SC Bankers’ show. And it’s a big one. It brings together about 180 bankers who are at different levels in a three-year course, conducted each July.
It’s also a new step in terms of providing accommodations to organizations in the community. You may already know that ExecEd rents out a variety of event spaces within one of the most striking architectural achievements in South Carolina – the Moore School itself. This annual event expands the spaces available through ExecEd more broadly across the expanse of the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus.
“They stay in a dorm that’s on the university campus, a walking distance from the Darla Moore School of Business,” said Associate Dean for Executive Education Mark Cecchini. “A cafeteria is open for them for breakfast and lunch.”
The Bankers Association handled all the course details and the ExecEd staff focused on hosting. “They already have the content” for the entire program, he said. “They provide the teachers.” Not that there isn’t some slight overlap – for instance, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Tim Koch, a member of ExecEd’s faculty, also teaches for the Bankers School – but as an adjunct to the Bankers Association.
The Bankers School was at USC years ago and just came back this past summer after a few years at Lander University. Carolyn Bradley, senior vice president of products & services at the Bankers Association, says the program will definitely be back again in July 2025. “They were fabulous,” she said about working with ExecEd in 2024.
From the ExecEd perspective, Mark Cecchini said “I’m really impressed by the fact that they run a really taut ship, handling all those students at a time.”
To get an idea of what is involved, see three key links on the Bankers Association website:
- The program’s 2024 brochure.
- This year’s annual report.
- A few class photos from the summer.
As the website states, the School “provides the practicing banker an integrated and complete set of usable courses covering all aspects of banking, as well as overall bank management.”
It’s been a learning experience for ExecEd as well. With the added challenge of providing space and meals on parts of the campus other than the Moore School, “We have to work with other university groups more than we’ve done in the past,” Mark explained. “Last summer was our first time,” and he can already see why “Everybody wanted it here.”
“It’s been an interesting opportunity for us,” he said. “A bigger set of students… basically, it’s just more.” And now, he looks forward to next summer.
The 2025 SC Bankers School will be back on campus from Sunday, July 13, to Friday, July 18.
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