North New Castle News

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and the City’s official Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Ambassador, television sports host Stephen A. Smith, reported today that the 4th Annual HBCU Week Awards Gala, held last Friday at the Hotel Dupont in Downtown Wilmington, raised a total $343,000 to support the City’s annual HBCU Week initiative. The Gala is the start of the City’s yearly celebration of HBCUs which leads to HBCU Week and the HBCU College Fair in September when thousands of young people will have the opportunity to be accepted to a historically black college or university. This year’s sold-out black-tie gala honored four scholars, each of whom had received a $40,000 Future of Chemistry Scholarship in 2019 and have now graduated with honors from their respective universities. They are: 

• Nia Anderson – Howard University
• Kayla Bell-Davis– Howard University
• Simone Josey – North Carolina AT&T State University
• Jazmine Harrison – North Carolina AT&T State University 

Also recognized at the HBCU Gala was Alahni Napier, the first-ever recipient of the Mike Purzycki Changemaker Scholarship. Alahni, a recent graduate of the Charter School of Wilmington, will use her $10,000 award to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore. Additional honorees at this year’s event included: 

• Lance Gross, actor, producer, and photographer, who received the HBCU Week Trailblazer Award, which recognizes an HBCU alum who has a record of outstanding achievements in their respective industry and paved the way for those coming behind them.
• Tamika Mallory, Co-Founder of Until Freedom, who received the HBCU Week Social Impact Award, created to recognize an HBCU alum and/or advocate who has demonstrated significant, positive changes that address social justice issues. 

The HBCU Week Awards Gala was born out of the HBCU Week initiative begun by Mayor Mike Purzycki’s Special Assistant Ashley Christopher. With the Mayor’s support and leadership, HBCU Week was created with the mission to encourage high-school aged youth to enroll at HBCUs, to provide scholarship dollars for their matriculation, and to sustain a pipeline for their employment from undergraduate school to corporate America. The purpose of the HBCU Week Awards Gala held last week is to raise money for HBCU Week, assemble HBCU supporters, and honor individuals who have demonstrated a significant commitment to HBCUs and to Wilmington’s HBCU programs. 

HBCU Week is an annual, weeklong programmatic initiative that exposes high-school aged youth to the proud legacies and historical significance of historically black colleges and universities and encourages students to further their education at one of the more than 100 such institutions across the United States. The most impactful event during HBCU Week is the College Fair. This fair is unique in that most the participating colleges engage in an "on the spot" acceptance process whereby, if the student attends with a copy of their transcript and a report with the requisite SAT/ACT score, they could be admitted into college on the spot and offered a scholarship award.  

Since 2017, more than 6,000 on-the-spot acceptances have been offered and more than $60 million in scholarships have been awarded from the HBCU admission staff and corporate partnerships.  Most notably, HBCU Week Foundation has partnered with the American Chemistry Council (ACC), to offer the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI).  This scholarship totals $40,000 and is available to over 100 students annually who commit to attending an HBCU and declare a STEM major.

Original source can be found here.