United Negro College Fund celebrates milestone anniversary
The United Negro College Fund reaches a milestone anniversary this year.
You remember the commercials and the iconic tagline “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” And some of a certain age definitely remember the annual telethons.
The United Negro College fund has been helping to send Black students to school for 80 years.
Since it’s launch, UNCF has raised more than $5 billion and helped more than half a million students earn their degrees.
For Jasper Sagan, taking the first steps toward a college degree came with a bit of a learning curve.
“I only wanted to attend one college and I didn’t care how much it cost. But when I found out how much it cost, I knew there was a huge deficit in me getting to that goal,” he said. “I’m a first generation college student, so I wasn’t privy to too many scholarship opportunities.”
Connecting with UNCF early was the beginning of a long relationship.
“The support from UNCF started in high school but it continued on throughout college as well as after graduation,” Sagan said.
That relationship, led to another lifelong connection, to one of Atlanta’s most revered campuses.
“Morehouse was the best experience of my life, don’t tell my wife that,” Sagan said.
His wife probably already knows, they met in school. She’s a Spelman grad, and UNCF recipient herself.
Morehouse and Spelman are just two of the 37 historically Black colleges and universities that have partnered with UNCF. But students benefitting from the organization’s scholarships can be found in classrooms across the country.
Dr. Blondean Davis has been keeping kids on track for decades. A veteran educator in Chicago’s Public Schools and now in the suburbs where she’s the CEO of Southland College Prep in Richton Park.
“People think about UNCF as only giving money to historically Black colleges and universities, but that’s not true. A child can apply and if they qualify, they can receive money to go to any college,” she said.
She says every student should have a chance to pursue a future of their dreams, without money as an obstacle.
“Isn’t it a very depressing thing, to think of a child that you open their eyes to the future to see the possibilities, they go to college, they’re on campus, they’re doing their best to stay but money becomes an issue,” she said.
Lamariah is a United Negro College fund recipient.
“I was a very driven child, highly motivated to do well in academics,” she said. “I remember when I was in middle school, googling what are the best public high schools in the state. And so then I got the list of selective enrollment schools and I said okay, I need to take this test, get these grades, and apply here.”
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That persistence led her to Jones College Prep, Spelman College and now it’s getting her through law school at Northwestern University.
“I knew that the $5,000 scholarship that they gave me would help with some of the extra burdens that people don’t really consider when you’re a college student, outside of tuition,” she said.
The support goes far beyond book fees. Lamariah has found mentors in UNCF’s leadership and fellow former recipients that have carved out a roadmap for success. It’s inspired her to do the same.
“I currently work with Northwestern Law’s office of diversity and inclusion on an HBCU initiative where I travel around the country to different HBCUs and talk to students about their prospects of a legal education and the offerings at northwestern that would be beneficial to them,” she said.
For students like Lamariah and jasper, UNCF has made all the difference.
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