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Honeywell establishes partnership to bring scholarships to employees

Honeywell continues its collaboration with ASU, now partnering with the W. P. Carey school's Graduate Programs Office to offer scholarships for MBA and specialized master’s programs to its employees.

Raquel Harris

2025-08-18

Honeywell and Arizona State University have been collaborating since 2014, when Honeywell first began sponsoring student capstone projects. Since then, the company has expanded its engagement across the university, including with the W. P. Carey School of Business. Within the last year, Honeywell established a graduate academic partnership with the W. P. Carey School’s Graduate Programs Office.

The W. P. Carey Graduate Programs Office partners with organizations to provide their employees with exclusive benefits for our top-ranked graduate programs — at no cost to the organization. Brandi Caruthers, director of corporate outreach and community engagement, leads the graduate academic partnership initiative for the school.

“Dean Kadan started this partnership opportunity as a way to engage and give back to our community and businesses here in Arizona,” Caruthers says. “The graduate academic partnership initiative also supports W. P. Carey’s vision of transforming the world through access, excellence, and innovation in business knowledge.”

Partnership benefits

Becoming a graduate academic partner comes at no cost to organizations and can complement any existing tuition benefits that may already be offered. This partnership provides additional cost savings through waiving application fees and providing scholarships for employees, ranging from $2,000 to $25,000. Programs eligible for these benefits include W. P. Carey graduate degrees designed for working professionals.

Honeywell became a graduate academic partner thanks to a handful of employees who learned about the opportunity at one of W. P. Carey’s MBA Preview Night events. Caruthers has been working closely with W. P. Carey alumnus Rey Trujillo (MBA '14), senior director of program management at Honeywell Aerospace, to bring these partnership benefits to employees.

“I’m happy to motivate employees to pursue a graduate degree and take ownership of their career development,” Trujillo says, “especially with W. P. Carey’s MBA programs.”

Positive impacts at Honeywell

Honeywell became a graduate academic partner in August 2024. Since then, Caruthers has collaborated with Trujillo to roll out the partnership, starting with one division of Honeywell and planning to expand to others in the near future.

“Supporting students in making quality graduate education more accessible is at the heart of what I do and why I deeply believe in the power of partnerships,” Caruthers says.

In less than a year, eight Honeywell employees have enrolled in a W. P. Carey graduate program. The majority are pursuing MBA programs, while others have chosen highly ranked specialized master’s degrees to dive deeper into a specific area of business. Both Caruthers and Trujillo are pleased to see employees pursuing graduate studies and that the partnership allows them to provide additional financial support.

Trujillo oversees two Honeywell employees currently enrolled in the Evening MBA program. “They’re already applying learnings from the classroom into their daily work,” he says. It’s evident that their confidence has also grown, something Honeywell highly values.

One of those employees is Dantrell Eaglin, principal account manager, who also helped bring this partnership to Honeywell. “I was always confident with the technical discussions,” Eaglin shares. “However, now that I have the experience from the MBA program, I feel more confident joining discussions from the business operations standpoint.”

In addition to confidence, Honeywell also recognizes the value of earning an MBA — especially for employees coming from engineering backgrounds into customer-facing roles. According to Trujillo, pursuing an MBA is an important step for those seeking to move into higher-level positions. Eaglin has already advanced from program manager to account manager after completing just the first year of the program.

When asked how his MBA courses have given him a leg up in his new role, Eaglin says his experience has provided a deeper understanding of how Honeywell operates and the decision-making factors behind his customer accounts.

“My undergraduate degree was in Aerospace Engineering, so I always felt rather lost in the ‘business world,’” says Eaglin. “I now look at things we do as a company from a business lens rather than solely from a customer satisfaction standpoint. This has unlocked a new perspective for me to carry.”

How to establish a graduate academic partnership

Establishing a graduate academic partnership is a simple process that doesn’t require a contract or memorandum of understanding (MOU). Becoming a partner involves a minimal time commitment. At Honeywell, Trujillo collaborates with one person from the communications and administration teams, along with a few employees currently enrolled in W. P. Carey graduate programs, to help raise awareness about the partnership and share their experiences with fellow Honeywell employees.