April/May 2018


Reverend Jesse Jackson to serve as Bennett College’s 2018 Baccalaureate Speaker


Truman Scholarship FROM PAGE 1


The HBCU Advocate 11


Lori Christiansen (l), who received the scholarship in 1977, and Ms. Winchester are the only two Truman Scholars from DSU.


“Alisa represents our University’s mission, a promising young talent who, against many odds, found access and opportunity and is taking full advantage,” Dr. Allen said. “She is the very embodiment of what happens when potential is surrounded by high expectations, a supportive environment commitment


service.” Ms. Winchester, who is also


an enlisted cadet in the Delaware


Army National Guard as well as in the Reserves Officer Training Corp (ROTC), aspires to be a military lawyer. She said that the scholarship will greatly help her pay for law school after she graduates from DSU in 2019.


GREENSBORO, N.C. – The


Reverend Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and a renowned Baptist minister, will serve as Bennett College’s 2018 Baccalaureate speaker, officials have announced.


Baccalaureate will be held at


7 p.m. on Friday, May 4, inside the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on Bennett’s campus. The public is invited to attend.


“We are ecstatic to have the


Reverend Jesse Jackson address our graduating seniors during their Baccalaureate Service,” said Bennett College President Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins. “Reverend Jackson has been a champion for Civil Rights for more than half a century, and he made history when he ran for president of the United States in the 1980s. I’m certain Reverend Jackson will impart sage advice to our students, and I look forward to hosting him on our campus.”


Jackson merged his two


non-profit organizations to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in 1996. The organization justice,


civil activism. Jackson will be introduced on


May 4 by Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a labor economist, noted author,


rights


pursues social and political


colorful commentator and syndicated


columnist who served as the Fifteenth President of Bennett College from 2007 to 2012.


Jackson will speak at Bennett just three months after receiving a Lifetime Civil and Human Rights Award during the


International


and Museum’s annual gala. During his remarks, Jackson, a 1964 graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, commended Bennett


Belles


participation in the sit-ins. The


Bennett College family for their is


excited to have Jackson, an international- ly known Civil Rights leader, deliver the Baccalaureate address. He was Student Body President at A&T, where he was also a quarterback on the football team. After graduating, he worked side-by-side with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and was with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.


Bennett’s Baccalaureate inside


will


A day after Jackson delivers address


the same Chapel where King


spoke in February 1958, White House Correspondent and CNN Political Analyst April Ryan


deliver College’s Commencement the Address.


Commencement begins at 10 a.m. on the Quadrangle on Bennett’s campus. The public is invited to attend.


Civil Rights Center In vying for the scholarship,


Ms. Winchester had to go through an interview process that included writing a policy proposal on mental health and Post Traumatic


Stress


Disorder issues in the military. She said Dr. Adenike Davidson, DSU professor of English, gave her some valuable assistance in her successful application for the scholarship.


Dr. Davidson said Ms. Winchester


was a “teacher’s dream” to mentor through the process. “She is a student who seeks constructive criticism and is committed to her education through new experiences and opportunities that push her beyond the limits she places on herself,” Dr. Davidson said. “I look forward to seeing great things from her in the future.”


Discipline, time management, and a standard for academic excellence characterizes Ms. Winchester’s first three years at DSU. She currently has a 3.7 GPA, which she maintains while commuting from Wilmington and holding down a job.


“My first two years were really


a challenge,” she said. “In addition to going to school full-time, I was commuting from Wilmington three to four times a week, while at the same time I was working two jobs.”


The Truman Scholar also has her National Guard commitment, in which


she serves one weekend a month, and ROTC training that included three days of physical training a week as well as lab work and field training that takes place during the semester.


Ms. Winchester said the Truman


and an unrelenting to excellence and


Scholarship validates all of her efforts. “It affirms the hard work and


dedication that I put in,” she said. “I have always been a fighter and work to give maximum effort in all that I do.” She added that she gets her work ethic from her parents, Royce Moore and Hope Winchester.


Technical High School, Ms. Winchester


A 2014 graduate of Delcastle is only the


second


DSU student to receive the Truman Scholarship. Lori Christiansen, then a junior history major, won the award in 1977 – the scholarship’s first year of existence. Ms. Christiansen, who is the sister of Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen, is currently the director of Legislative Research at the Delaware General Assembly.


Delaware U.S. Sen. Chris


Coons is also a past Truman Scholar, who won the award in 1983. He had a phone conversation with Ms. Winchester to encourage her prior to her interview with the Truman Foundation.


“I am so pleased to celebrate


Wilmington’s and Delaware State University’s Alisa Winchester on her Truman


Alisa’s hard work, to country and her


Scholarship,” Sen. Coons said. “This scholarship recognizes individuals who are committed to public service and to their fellow Americans. dedication


passion to serve reflects President Truman’s philosophy of service to our community that we look for in our current and future leaders.”


The Truman Foundation sorted through 756 applications scholarship


and pared that


for the down


to 194 finalists. Ms. Winchester is among the 59 recipients selected in 2018. She is


the 37th Delawarean


named a Truman Scholar since the program inception in 1977.


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