By Jennifer Chen The Daily Northwestern
At 8 a.m. Saturday morning, people from all parts of the Northwestern community will brush their teeth, lace up their sneakers and head to the Lakefill to run for someone they’ve never met.
They know some things about this person. They know this person is bright, talented and a black high school senior. They know this person has been accepted into NU but might not have the money to afford it.
That is why students, faculty, alumni and locals are running on Saturday morning in an inaugural 5K Run/Walk to fund a future scholarship for this incoming black freshman.
The Oct. 7 run is sponsored by Northwestern University Black Alumni Association, Northwestern Alumni Association and For Members Only. It is the first NU scholarship specifically for incoming black students.
“We want to encourage students who are bright but who are from traditionally underserved communities to consider institutions like Northwestern,” said NUBAA president Ce Cole Dillon, SESP ’78. “Northwestern actually has a great tradition of working with underserved communities. (It started) in the 1960s when we provided students with leadership opportunities. Now we’re trying to revive that spirit and saying, ‘Let’s go back into the communities and find them again.'”
The scholarship and 5K Run/Walk are the brainchildren of co-program chairman P. Scott Montgomery and the rest of the NUBAA executive board.
“We wanted to come up with something outside of the box, outside of the typical wine and cheese social,” said Montgomery, Weinberg ’89.
NUBAA has not settled on a fundraising target, Montgomery said.
Feasible, interactive and set on “the beautiful Northwestern campus,” a scholarship run just made sense, he said. “It’s a place to be healthy, help out, network with alumni and get the university community back together.”
Thanks to NUBAA’s networking skills, students who want to walk or run in the 5K will be paired with a corporate or alumni sponsor who will cover the student’s registration fees.
Registration for students can be done through FMO at the Office of African-American Student Affairs or at registration tables in Norris University Center all next week. Interested non-students can register online at alumni.northwestern.edu/nubaa. The goal is to get at least 200 runners this year.
FMO Acting Coordinator Monica Harris, a Weinberg junior, declined to reveal how many students have registered to run so far, so as not to discourage anybody from signing up.
But the three-hour affair will be more than just a stroll around the lake, Harris said, with music, socializing and prizes. Besides T-shirts, goody bags, water and healthy snacks for runners, medals will be given to the fastest male and female runners who choose to race.
NUBAA, NAA and FMO boards said they hope this weekend’s run will be the start of a new tradition.
“We want to build something that will last a long, long time and grow in size,” Montgomery said.
As alumni, he said, they are no longer students of NU, but that does not mean they have forgotten what it was like. As alumni, “we want to give back to those coming after us, just as many gave to us when we were in school,” he said.
Reach Jennifer Chen at [email protected].
