AWARDS GALA RAISES $343,000 FOR HBCU WEEK

The 4th Annual HBCU Week Awards Gala was held at the Hotel Dupont in Wilmington in June and raised $343,000 to support the City’s annual HBCU Week initiative. Among those recognized at the Gala was Alahni Napier, the firstever recipient of the Mike Purzycki Changemaker Scholarship. Alahni, a graduate of the Charter School of Wilmington, will use her $10,000 award to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore.

With the Mayor’s support and leadership, HBCU Week was created to encourage high-school aged youth to enroll at HBCUs, to provide scholarship dollars for their matriculation, and to sustain a pipeline for their employment from undergraduate school to corporate America.

Since 2017, over 6,000 on-the-spot acceptances have been offered and more than $60 M in scholarships have been awarded from the HBCU admission staff and corporate partnerships. Most notably, HBCU Week Foundation has partnered with the American Chemistry Council to offer the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative. This scholarship totals $40,000 and is available to over 100 students annually who commit to attending an HBCU and declare a STEM major.