Nearly 300 USC Black Alumni dined and celebrated in an “all white affair” on Saturday, March 25, aboard a four-level yacht in the Marina del Rey harbor, with a featured performance by Grammy Award winning artist Anthony Hamilton. Attendees of the “Fantastic Voyage” applauded nearly $300,000 in donor and sponsor contributions, however, the evening’s festivities were amplified further by scholarship gift announcements to the USC Black Alumni Association by board members Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., and Mr. Eric and Mrs. Terri Holoman.
Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer Sr.’s pledge gift of $500,000.00 targets improvement of African American male enrollment and completion at USC. Mr. and Mrs. Holoman’s pledge gift of $1 Million dollars will benefit the new USC Village, USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Black Alumni Association. This gift will provide targeted resources to improve the workforce entry and success of African American undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of Finance, to include mentorship and network support from Mr. Holoman, Managing Partner of Magic Johnson Enterprises.
“The USC Black Alumni Association is very proud of our outstanding and vested alumni whom are aggressively moving our mission of scholarship support forward,” notes Dr. Michèle G. Turner, USC BAA Executive Director. “Major gifts such as these, to also include last year’s notable gifts by Ms. Sandra Evers-Manly and Mr. Carl Beverly, have allowed the USC BAA’s capacity for scholarship support to increase substantially. Our endowment fund is currently valued at nearly $3 Million. We are clearly demonstrating that the USC BAA is a serious contributor to the quality of the experience, success and future of black Trojans!”
Founded in 1976 by Rev. Dr. Thomas Kilgore, Jr., the USC Black Alumni Association is a leadership network established to strengthen the legacy of educational attainment and excellence of USC black students. The USC BAA provides scholarship assistance, career mentoring and cultural advocacy through alumni networking, volunteer involvement and social enterprise. It has provided approximately $6 Million in over 2700 scholarship awards for undergraduate and graduate students. Since 2008, BAA Scholars have maintained an impressive graduation rate of 100%, largely due to their participation in the BAA’s “Legacy Through Leadership Mentoring Program.”
If you would like to become involved as a mentor, or donor, please call the USC Black Alumni Association at: 213-740-8342, or visit the website at: www.usc.edu/baa.
