White High Schooler Returns Scholarship Intended for African-American Student
1:53 am - 06/14/2012
White High Schooler Returns Scholarship Intended for African-American Student
What do you do when you receive a scholarship that was meant for students of another race?
A white high school graduate in Riverside, Calif. returned his scholarship after realizing that it was meant for an African-American student.
Jeffrey Warren, 17, received a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by the Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club but returned it the day after the award ceremony. “I just thought it was the right thing to do,” said Warren of his decision to return the scholarship.
Etta Brown, the chairwoman of the club’s scholarships committee, said she and other club members were surprised when they found out at the award ceremony that one of scholarship winners was a white student. Brown explained that the member who interviewed Warren on the phone had no idea that the applicant was white.
The application for the scholarship only stated that African-Americans were ‘encouraged’ to apply. Only separate cover letters sent to high school counselors explicitly stated that the scholarship was intended for black students; Warren reportedly never saw the cover letter and applied for the scholarship, which has never been awarded to a non-black student since it was created in 2005.
Rod Warren, Jeffrey’s father, told the Press-Enterprise that Jeffrey applied for nearly 30 scholarships and won three other scholarships worth a total of $4,500. Jeffrey plans to attend San Diego State University next year to double major in English and business. The scholarship he returned was awarded to an African-American student who will attend Cornell University this fall, reported ABC News.
Source
OP: While I think it's awesome that he returned the money, I can't help but think how degraded our society has become when doing the right thing is news worthy.
What do you do when you receive a scholarship that was meant for students of another race?
A white high school graduate in Riverside, Calif. returned his scholarship after realizing that it was meant for an African-American student.
Jeffrey Warren, 17, received a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by the Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club but returned it the day after the award ceremony. “I just thought it was the right thing to do,” said Warren of his decision to return the scholarship.
Etta Brown, the chairwoman of the club’s scholarships committee, said she and other club members were surprised when they found out at the award ceremony that one of scholarship winners was a white student. Brown explained that the member who interviewed Warren on the phone had no idea that the applicant was white.
The application for the scholarship only stated that African-Americans were ‘encouraged’ to apply. Only separate cover letters sent to high school counselors explicitly stated that the scholarship was intended for black students; Warren reportedly never saw the cover letter and applied for the scholarship, which has never been awarded to a non-black student since it was created in 2005.
Rod Warren, Jeffrey’s father, told the Press-Enterprise that Jeffrey applied for nearly 30 scholarships and won three other scholarships worth a total of $4,500. Jeffrey plans to attend San Diego State University next year to double major in English and business. The scholarship he returned was awarded to an African-American student who will attend Cornell University this fall, reported ABC News.
Source
OP: While I think it's awesome that he returned the money, I can't help but think how degraded our society has become when doing the right thing is news worthy.
The problem was a) as you point out, they were mostly for trivial amounts, and b) many of them were SO restrictive. "Are you the third son of a one-armed plumber who has been a union member for at least 15 years? Write us an essay about the importance of plumbing and receive a $500 scholarship!!!111!!!!" -.- I seriously saw one from a fire safety group or something that was like "Write a 10-page paper on the importance of fire sprinklers in your life. 1st Prize: $200 Scholarship."
i ended up winning a bursary i hadn't applied for, but only because it had been discontinued due to no one applying for 10 years. when the teachers clued in that i was headed into culinary studies, they reached out to the people behind it, who were like OMG YES, and then gave me 3 years worth of the original bursary amount. i was really surprised. they had given out everything i had applied for, so i wasn't really paying attention and the guy next to me had to poke me a couple times.