|
|
 |
Oct. 15: A. James Clark School of Engineering Innovation Hall of Fame Induction Oct. 16 and 17: Homecoming and Reunion Weekend Nov. 11: Maryland Society Reception (prior to Shirley Povich Symposium) Nov. 11: Shirley Povich Symposium Nov. 19: College of Education Alumni Awards Dinner |
Join the Clark School in honoring Buno Pati ’86,M.A. ’88 and Ph.D. ’92 for his innovations in electronic circuitry that paved the way for the powerful, low-cost electronic devices that are now part of everyday life. |
 Helping Students Reach for the StarsScholarship Helps Senior over Last Hurdle By Monette Austin Bailey
Erin McClure, assistant to the chair, had been asked to keep an eye out for academically successful students with immediate need. McClure knew Brightful would be a good fit for a recently secured gift to help students stay in school. She forwarded her name and profile to the donor in the first week of school; Brightful was notified of her selection later that day. The graduating senior had gone to the office during the summer to change her internship. She was to work this semester at the university’s Center for Young Children, but needed a position closer to her part-time job at Wal-Mart and the home she shares with her brother and sister-in-law. She moved in with them when she could no longer afford to pay for housing. “It’s my last semester … the first time I haven’t lived on campus. I didn’t want [the change] to weigh on me, but it is,” she says. The $1,500 Kesi Gilford-Reynaud Scholarship she was awarded recognizes “motivated, high-caliber” School of Public Health students facing financial hardships. Louis Henry Gilford Jr. ’99 established and named the award in memory of his sister, who died from lupus seven years ago. Three students will split $5,000 this semester: Brightful, senior family science major Jaclyn Gaudio and junior kinesiology major Whitney Hoyt (who receives $2,000). Gilford is founder and president of the Banneker Group, LLC, a successful Laurel-based general contracting and maintenance company. He was a physical therapy major in the former College of Health and Human Performance when he started the firm, naming it after black inventor Benjamin Banneker. His giving is inspired, he says, by the many small shows of support he received as a student. “So many people that may not have been in my life every day, good professors, sometimes the people who worked in the dining hall always had an encouraging word.” McClure acted under a similar premise. When Brightful arrived at the office with her request, McClure asked if she was having some financial difficulty. A quiet person, Brightful didn’t want to sound needy. She does have family support, a job and financial aid. Commuting, though, added expenses she hadn’t counted on, such as bus and MARC train fare (she doesn’t have a car) and eating away from home. Brightful says the quick turnaround of the gift is as surprising as the award itself. She’s grateful to face a little less pressure in her last semester—and to be completing her degree. A graduate of Maryland’s Academic Achievement Programs, a collection of intensive college readiness and support initiatives for low-income and first-generation students, Brightful knows that finishing is not a given. “Coming from where I did … you notice how many faces you stop seeing at school.” Her benefactor asks only one thing of each scholarship recipient: “That they help somebody when they have the opportunity,” says Gilford. Brightful intends to make a career helping others as a social worker. She now shadows a caseworker at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center twice a week. Learn how you can make your mark on Maryland by supporting the School of Public Health.  | ||||||
