Former YSU Assistant Athletics of Athletics and current YSU Foundation Development Director Andrew Wingard spoke to attendees at the August 3rd Rotary Meeting about the new Social Justice Scholarship being offered to first-generation college students.
Mr Wingard said this will be one-year full academic scholarship, including room and board, and will be available to Black students in any major who are active in the community. The Foundation expects that they will need $400,000 to support the program but, thanks to the Foundation's Minority Match program, the initial goal will be to raise half that amount and the Foundation will contribute the rest.
Mr. Wingard stressed that the Foundation is only the home of the scholarship, and that the idea originated in Minnesota in the wake of George Floyd's death. A University President there established a scholarship to support young Black activists and challenged Universities across the country to do the same. Here at YSU, mathematics and statistics professor Alicia Prieto Langarcia championed the idea, and Carol Bennett, YSU assistant provost for Diversity and Inclusion, led the effort to make it a reality.
Since the scholarship is for any Black YSU student actively engaged in community leadership roles and/or political and/or social activism, Mr, Wingard said that he hoped that our Rotary Club would help support these up and coming community leaders.