Smithfield-Luter Scholarship
Fayetteville State University has received a generous scholarship package from the Smithfield-Luter Foundation, and eight students are currently benefiting. It is a $100,000 grant, to be spread over four years, with each $25,000 disbursement to be divided among as many FSU students as may qualify. “This scholarship grew out of a meeting we had with the SmithfieldLuter Foundation representatives,” said Stephen McDaniel, Fayetteville State’s Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement. “We met them on campus concerning fundraising and concluded that what we needed more than anything was scholarships.” Established in 2002, the Smithfield-Luter Foundation is a nonprofit organization that acts as the philanthropic wing of Smithfield Foods, Inc. Since its inception, the foundation has provided educational scholarships to the dependent children and grandchildren of full-time and retired employees of
Smithfield and its family of companies. “Qualified applicants must be the children or grandchildren of Smithfield employees,” McDaniel explained, “and be enrolled as a full-time student at Fayetteville State. The scholarship is designed to meet unmet needs. For some, it may be tuition; for others, it may be books. It just depends on the student. “When the scholarship was announced during the summer, we communicated the information to the human resources department at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel. Smithfield included the scholarship information in its newsletter which went out to the overall Smithfield organization. We also sent out scholarship applications.” Fayetteville State received several applications, and as a result, eight students have been awarded scholarships. All are renewable, based on continued need and qualification, for four years. This year’s Smithfield-Luter Scholarship recipients at FSU are all from North Carolina. They include Frankie
Robinson, Neisha Spivey and Lawrence Thomas, all of Fayetteville; Chayveon Page and DeLaurence Rudd, both of Hope Mills; Kayla Brianne of Elizabethtown; Danisha McLaurin of Maxton; and Kandice Helton of Kenansville. “Smithfield-Luter did not have any scholarship programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina,” McDaniel said, “and its people wanted to be involved in that area in this state.” There is a possibility that the scholarship at Fayetteville State could increase. “We have a four-year commitment for $100,000,” McDaniel said, “but Smithfield-Luter’s people have said to us that they would revisit the dollar amount based on demand. “This is a wonderful opportunity to help Fayetteville State meet its greatest need. I would love to have 10 more scholarships just like this. We are most appreciative to Smithfield-Luter for its generosity and interest in FSU and its students.” 7