McKendra, program officer at the Foundation, but because lawyers tend to provide leadership in the black community. One of the Foundation's goals is to promote good leadership. "Our interest in the scholars' program at UALR is to ensure that the kind of leadership coming to the foreground will be leadership which is trained and which possesses a broad vision of what Arkansas can become," McKendra said. McKendra agrees with Walsh and Harris that the scholars' program provides an opportunity to keep Arkansas' brightest and best black law applicants at home where they can make a lifelong commitment. "Where you end up working for a lifetime is likely to be where you attend law schooL" he said. Since the program's inception and the first 12 scholars were funded
seven years ago. fOUf are in law school and eight have graduated and are practicing law and making a meaningful contribution to the community at large and to the profession. For example, Austin Porter, a 1986 graduate, is employed by Central Arkansas Legal Services in Little Rock and is proving himself to be a leader by taking an assertive role in issues which concern College Station, a poor black community on little Rock's east side. Porter, a native of College Station, continues to live there, convinced he can make a difference.
In Porter's words: "There is a drastic need in black communities for good role models so that our children can see that there is more to life than just hanging out on the streets, getting involved with drugs and living a life of crime. Living in a
place like College Station, 1 see too often talented kids just wasting their talents. 1 see a lot of faces filled with hopelessness and frustration. Unfortunately, in so many black communities like College Station, the children are without dreams or visions. With more black professionals making themselves available in these communities, 1 strongly believe the hopes, the dreams and the vision can be restored to the faces of our children." Porter adds that he wanted to be a lawyer to provide such a role model. "I want to be able to say to them that although you are faced with many obstacles, you can overcome them and you can achieve those goals that you thought were unreachable. The Rockefeller Foundation has helped me to achieve my goal. Now, 1 will work to help others achieve theirs," Porter said.
Alice Sprinkle. 1984 graduate While the minority students who have benefited from the scholars' program are different in terms of the
contributions they can make. all are regarded as capable of providing leadership in Arkansas for years to come.
October 1987/Arkansas Lawyerll37