Alltell’s Words of Wisdom Essay Contest – 10 Thousand Dollar HBCU Scholarship

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by Lamar Tyler | on January 28th, 2009 | 10 comments

Alltel Wireless and world renowned poet Dr. Maya Angelou are celebrating Black History Month with the fifth annual “Words of Wisdom” essay contest. Students at participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide are encouraged to submit their responses on the following topic: “The foundation has been laid. And as a people, we’ve shown what we can do when called upon for change. How are you being called to build upon this new spirit of change?”

To commemorate the fifth year of the program, Alltel doubled the scholarship amounts awarded. Ten grand prize winners will each receive a $10,000 scholarship to a participating HBCU institution of their choice as well as a trip to Little Rock, Ark., to meet Dr. Maya Angelou and enjoy a private concert with R&B sensation Musiq Soulchild. While in Little Rock, students and their guests will also enjoy tours of local landmarks, including the Mosiac Templars Cultural Center, William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Little Rock Central High School.

The deadline for this contest is Feb. 14h. For info, rules and eligibility check out the Alltell W.O.W. website by clicking here.

Make sure you forward this post and spread the word on this great contest to all of your friends and family so we can make sure that some lucky HBCU student recieves one of the 10,000.00 shcholarships.

About the author

Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.

http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com TheMom

This is a great opportunity and I just missed it…..as it seems like I just graduated from an HBCU yesterday ok… well it’s been a little longer than that.

Please forward this around to all of your friends and co-workers and post it on your facebook pages. This is a great opportunity!!!

TheMoms last blog post..Celebs Behind the Scenes at Obama “We Are One” Concert
http://www.blackandmarriedwithkids.com TheDad

@TheMom – I love you and all but when you graduated from college boys were still wearing neckties to class like Martin Luther King and yall were doing lunch counter sit ins.
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Harriet

Oh, no, Lamar! You can’t talk to my girl like that! ROFL

I need to go to the website to see if the school where I work is participating in this. It would be great to inform my students about this opportunity.
Jonesi

I can’t help but admit attending a PWI makes you feel out of the lopp at times. Praise God I had a full scholarship for undergrad and now grad school too but geez…we never get special attention
No big scholarships from influential celebs, no battle of the bands, and worst of all NO Essence tour! lol
Anna

My daughters do not attend a HBCU, but I am so proud that they are in college. I would love for this great scholarshp to extend to young ppl with an essay to submit to be considered a wonderful gift. My daughters may not be qualified per the guidelines but I would love to see their essays posted somewhere for the time and compassion I know they will spend in expressing their reasons why ” I should be considered for this”. I have always told my kids. If you think you are not considered for what you want does not mean that someone else is not looking at your , worth/words/wisdom or ideas”, it just means that it is “not your time to shine in any persons eyes but mine”.
Harriet

@ Jonesi,

I went to a PWI, and we got plenty of preferential treatment…but it wasn’t handed to us on a silver platter. I did the McNair Summer Research Institute where they paid me 3 grand for two months of research on topic of my choice. I had the time of my life. Then I did the Summer Research Opportunity Program as well.

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I told about 200 students about this today, and I talked to the university webmaster about posting the article from BMWK on the university website. If they do it, I’ll let y’all know so you can add that to your “about us” accolades.
Jonesi

@Harriet – Don’t get me wrong, attending a PWI was an intentional choice. I came from a very diverse HS and honestly wasn’t interested in an HBCU. My fam has roots at Central State but once I got the full scholarshop to a school in ky it was a wrap…not to mention I wanted to remain close to my mother. I just feel I’ve missed the comraderie many speak of that went to HBCU’s. I am no expert on the dynamics, I just wish the Essence college tour could have stopped my way
Harriet

I feel you @ Jonesi

I think that’s why I intentionally set my sights on working at an HBCU to see what the big deal was. There is a lot of history and esprit de corps here, but there’s also a lot of practices that leave a lot to be desired.

The school where I work employs many brilliant professors, but there’s that 3-5% that make everyone else look bad by either not holding students to a standard of higher education (you should see some of the papers my students bring me to look over before turning them in) or acting like students themselves and having unprofessional, unethical relationships with these impressionable people.

And of course, fiscal responsibility leaves a lot to be desired. The school where I work just hired this former Air Force colonel to be their VP of finance, and he’s really doing an outstanding job of cleaning up someone else’s 10 year old mess. I gotta give it to him.

I think the same things vex PWI’s, but the smaller the school, the more apt it is to put problems like that in the spotlight. It’s much easier to hide at a large PWI.
http://www.blackandmarriedwithkids.com TheDad

@Harriet – “I told about 200 students about this today, and I talked to the university webmaster about posting the article from BMWK on the university website. If they do it, I’ll let y’all know so you can add that to your “about us” accolades.”
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thank you so much for spreading the word. I really think this is a great opportunity for some deserving students.