Error processing SSI file
Through her Pathways to Freedom program, Rosa Parks has given hundreds of youths a chance to visit civil rights landmarks in the South each summer. It started in 1989. Pathways to Freedom has chapters in Washington, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia.Scholarship foundation helps teens reach dreams
More than 750 high school students have received more than $1.5 million for college, thanks to Parks, The News.
Rosa Parks congratulates scholarship recipient James Hill of Hamtramck High School in 1986. Each year, the program honors about 40 Michigan high school graduates.
Comment on this story
DETROIT -- Though the world knew her best for her historic civil rights stand, Rosa Parks' legacy also includes opening the doors of opportunity for young people.
Through the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation, established in 1980, more than 750 students from across Michigan have received more than $1.5 million in college scholarships.
In addition, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, co-founded by Rosa Parks in 1987, has provided hundreds of young people with an opportunity to learn about the civil rights movement.
Rana Elmir, a 2000 graduate of Dearborn High School, began pursuing her dream of becoming a journalist as one of the recipients of a Rosa Parks Scholarship. That led to her work as an intern for several local papers.
Elmir, now 23, is director of programs and outreach for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn. The Wayne State University graduate said the scholarship gave her the confidence to pursue her career goals.
"It was the final piece that allowed everything else to fit together," Elmir said. "The Rosa Parks scholarship has given me opportunities that I might not have had otherwise. I was very honored and grateful."
The Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation was established in 1980 by The Detroit News in partnership with Detroit Public Schools.
Each year, the program honors about 40 Michigan high school graduates. Applicants are evaluated on academic achievement, financial need, community involvement and an essay.
After college graduation, many scholarship recipients have gone on to successful careers in law, journalism, education and medicine.
"To be a Rosa Parks Scholar, you can't be ordinary," said Rex K. Nelson, a foundation board member who is a pharmaceutical sales representative. "There is not one recipient that is not an exceptional person or student."
The program also has offered scholarships, funded by The Detroit News, to the Journalism Institute for Minorities at Wayne State University.
The institute's graduates have earned jobs at many major radio and television stations, newspapers and advertising firms. Greg Bowens, the former press secretary for former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, and Kimberly Trent, an aide to U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, are both graduates of the institute.
The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, through its Pathways to Freedom program, has given hundreds of youths a chance to visit civil rights landmarks in the South each summer. It started in 1989.
"Young people have to understand history is a part of us all," Executive Director Anita Peek said. "It's something you have to learn. (Parks) was surprised to hear some young people didn't know anything about the civil rights movement. She always wanted an institute."
Pathways to Freedom, which operates year-round, has bus tours that follow the Underground Railroad and the migration of African-Americans from the South. Students also visit historically black colleges in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., and the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolence Center in Atlanta.
Peek said the program grew out of Parks' love for children.
"She always had a heart for young people," Peek said.
You can reach Darren A. Nichols at (734) 462-2190 or dnichols@detnews.com.
Copyright © 2005
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).