UNCF Awards Fellowships

FAIRFAX, Va. – UNCF–the United Negro College Fund–the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization, announced awards of fellowships to 18 African American students from six UNCF member institutions for UNCF’s Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program, the inaugural project of UNCF’s Social Entrepreneurship(USE) initiative. The USE K-12 program, which is funded with a $1.08 million seed grant from The Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville, Arkansas, and supplemented by the Wells Fargo/Wachovia Foundation, was launched in summer 2009 to build a pipeline of talented African American college graduates equipped to enter careers that applyinnovative, sustainable models to reforming elementary and secondary education.

The new USE Fellows include students at the following UNCF member institutions: Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina; Dillard University and Xavier University, both in New Orleans, Louisiana; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Morehouse College and Spelman College, both in Atlanta, Georgia.

“These extraordinary students are our community’s future leaders,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D. UNCF president and CEO. ”They are the social entrepreneurs of the future, who will recognize social problems and use entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage ventures to facilitate social change. One day, these change agents will run successful, sustainable organizations that will combat social issues like education reform, homelessness, poverty, the environment, AIDS and more. Their work will have a huge impact not only on our communities but on the world.”

Numerous studies have demonstrated that reform efforts are more likely to be successful when their leadership includes members of the group likely to benefit from reform. But although student bodies in big-city public school systems are dominated by students of color, lack of diversity in leadership is a significant problem among organizations dedicated to school reform. The primary goal of the UNCF Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program is therefore to cultivate a pool of young innovators who can foster increased racial diversity among the leadership and managers of education reform organizations that focus on increasing the number of low-income and minority students who are prepared for and pursuing a college degree.

The UNCF Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program includes job placement services, loan forgiveness, practitioner and faculty mentoring and leadership development. Fellows will serve eight-week summer internships with leading education social entrepreneurship organizations based in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C. like Achievement First, Teach For America, New Leaders for New Schools, Steppingstone Academy, Building Leaders for Life and Communities in Schools. USE has also formed strategic partnerships with organizations like New Sector Alliance, Education Pioneers and the New Schools Venture Fund. Additionally, USE Fellows will participate in “real-world” experiences including a social entrepreneurship “boot camp” and a post-internship leadership summit to provide in-depth exposure to careers available in the educational entrepreneurship sector.

The following college juniors have been selected for the first class of UNCF Social Entrepreneurship K-12 Education Fellows Program for this summer:

First Name	Last Name	Institution	Hometown
Santucee	Bell	Johnson C. Smith University	Charlotte, NC
Curtis	Browne	Morehouse College	Brooklyn, NY
Shaunessy	Carr	Dillard University	St. Louis, MO
Brittany	Estes	Dillard University	Kansas City, MO
Hershelle	Gaffney	Bennett College	Sacramento, CA
Sierra	Hall	Xavier University	New Orleans, LA
Andrea	Hodge	Xavier University	Okemos, MI
Nile	Lang	Xavier University	Richmond, CA
Ditanya	Madden	Spelman College	Baltimore, MD
Rachel	Maye	Spelman College	Long Island, NY
Darius	Melvin	Johnson C. Smith University	Charlotte, NC
Nicole	Miller	Bennett College	Cheverly, MD
Sierra	Morton	Bennett College	Detroit, MI
Shirley	Noel	Spelman College	White Plains, NY
Ernest	Simms	Johnson C. Smith University	Columbia, SC
Amanda	Smith	Dillard University	New Orleans, LA
Isis	Tarrats	Johnson C. Smith University	Charleston, SC
Marcus	Wedge	Morehouse College	Landover, MD

About UNCF

UNCF—the United Negro College Fund—is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students’ education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 39 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding 21 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."^®Learn more at www.UNCF.org.

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