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Great Offer From a
Black College |
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By: Vernon Jarrett
Special to the NNPA from the Chicago Defender |
If you are the parent of a high school graduate who may have
given up hope on entering college in September, hang on until
you hear from me. Even if you’re convinced that you don’t have
sufficient funds and your child’s high school grade-point
average is too low, there is an opportunity afloat for
enrollment this September at my favorite Black college.
If you inquire immediately—and I do mean immediately—there is
still a chance for enrollment at the college that gave my father
an opportunity to become an revered educator, and later inspired
my older brother, the late retired Atlanta University President
Dr. Thomas D. Jarrett, to earn a Ph.D. at the University of
Chicago, and in 1954 boosted him to a visiting professorship at
Oxford University.
This special offer is from historically Black Knoxville College,
a small 127-year-old institution in East Tennessee. It was the
spiritual climate at this little college that urged its students
to respect their Black history. That climate also ushered me
into serious journalism when I served as editor of the Aurora,
our campus newspaper.
Please pass the word about this offer.
But first you must hear this story about what can happen when
two Black men convert a routine chat into something real.
Last Saturday an idea struck me while riding on the Chicago
Daily Defender float in the 73rd Annual Bud Billiken parade. I
began to wonder how many of the thousands of young adults who
lined Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, would actually get a chance
to attend college this year. I suspected that many already had
lost hope because of a money shortage or low grades.
So I called Ronald E. Damper, a fellow alumnus and founder of
the Damron Corporation that made business news a few years ago
when Damper signed a big contract to supply prepared tea for the
McDonald Corporation. Ron is a Knoxville College (KC) alumnus
and fellow member of its board of trustees. Eventually, Ron and
I got specific. We asked ourselves a simple question: “Why can’t
we do for this generation what others once did for us?”
Then we stopped talking and took action.
We called Dr. Barbara Hatton, the creative president of our
college who recently launched a unique “work-study program” that
guarantees a college education “where you graduate debt free.”
Her program has reduced the cost of a semester from $5,000 to
$1,400 per student, including room, board and books.
But the applicant must be willing to work and study.
This means almost five months of college education for $1,400 or
$2,800 for the year, which need not be paid at one time. Dr.
Hatton will accept a $600 enrollment deposit with the remaining
$800 paid in four monthly installments of $200.
Knoxville College is the only Black institution among the
nation’s total of eight colleges that offer the work-study
advantage. This program is made possible by financial grants
from corporations and individuals.
Enrollment requirements include a high school diploma, and a
minimum 2.0 average on a 4.0 scale. A few students with grades
slightly below 2.0 may be considered if each can get three
letters from educators who will support their potential. The
college will provide tutors for such students, if accepted.
Knoxville College has never had huge student enrollments, which
has proven advantageous to the individual student. Current
student-to-teacher ratio is 11 to 1, which means that bright
students who may have been handicapped by earlier circumstances
can get more attention.
That is one reason why Knoxville College has produced thousands
of graduates who symbolize its emphasis on excellence. Dr.
Michael Eric Dyson, the brilliant Black scholar and syndicated
columnist, spent his early college days at Knoxville College. He
has served on its trustee board along with KC graduate George E.
Curry, the editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service and former editor of Emerge: Black
America’s News Magazine. He earlier distinguished himself at
Sports Illustrated, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Chicago
Tribune.
My friend Damper’s wife also is a KC graduate who earned a Ph.D.
in microbiology at Yale, followed by post-graduate work at the
University of Chicago. She earned her MD at Loyola University,
taught at the University of Illinois Medical School, and is now
a practicing physician in the city’s Beverly community.
Other Chicago KC alumni who make up our support team include Dr.
James T. Smith, retired Chicago dentist and former dental
instructor at Meharry Medical College; Dr. Freddie Daniels,
founder of Stony Island Medical Associates, and James Waller,
senior executive of Kaiser Permanente.
All interested students must immediately contact the admissions
office at Knoxville College by dialing (800) 743-5669 or
applying on line at www.knoxvillecollege.edu (click on the
admissions ticket at the bottom of the page).
Please just get an education somewhere.
Vernon Jarrett is a columnist for Chicago Defender and former
president of the National Association of Black Journalists. |
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