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A UMNS Report
By Joey Butler*

6:00 A.M. EST February 15, 2011

McCord ambassador Charlie Coleman III of Dillard University in New Orleans said because the Black College Fund helped reconstruct his school after Hurricane Katrina, he wants to give as much back to the church as it’s given to him. UMNS photo by Kathleen Barry.
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When a group of college students got off a bus in Nashville, Tenn., they had no idea how changed they would be when they got back on that bus five days later.

The 2011 Lina H. McCord summer interns came for orientation Jan. 12-17, and it was a true learning experience for all of them.

Each year, students from the 11 historically black colleges and universities related to The United Methodist Church are selected upon recommendation of their college presidents to serve as goodwill ambassadors for the Black College Fund, which supports those schools.

Over the course of five intense days, they are trained on speech and diction, dress and presentation, the history of the Black College Fund and the role The United Methodist Church plays in higher education. Then they travel to annual (regional) conference meetings and other church events to speak about the importance of supporting the fund. After a year of service, interns are named McCord ambassadors.

“The students can tell their stories better than anyone else can. I can tell you the story, but to really hear how they’ve been nurtured at these schools and how the faculty take an interest in them, it has to come from them,” said Cynthia Bond Hopson, a Black College Fund executive at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Investing in a life

The program began when Lina H. McCord, Black College Fund executive director from 1979 to 1985, wanted to illustrate the kinds of students supported by the fund.

In 1981, she invited two students to talk about their schools. In exchange for scholarships, they were asked to visit churches through the summer.

The project was highly rated by both annual conference participants and students, and the Black College Fund Student Itineration Program began. It was renamed the Lina H. McCord Summer Intern Program when McCord retired in 1985. McCord passed away in 2010.

McCord ambassadors serve for life, and may be called on to do presentations years after their internship.

The 2011 Lina H. McCord Summer Interns. Seated from left to right: Usha Satish, April C. Cotton, Bridget Sisney, Kathleen Cramer; standing from left to right: Alberto Argumedo, Jarod Washington, Noah Moore Jr., Walter Lee, Matthew McRae III. A UMNS photo courtesy of Crystal Banks.

“We want people to know they’re investing in a person’s life, and the money doesn’t just go to something they never see,” said Hopson.

Audrey Moorehead, an attorney in Dallas, was a Lina McCord intern in 1985. She recalls spending six weeks living with families and traveling to annual conference sessions to give speeches.

Moorehead said her experience as an intern gave her the confidence to go to law school.

“I’ve gone back every year since 1985 to train other Lina McCord interns,” she said. “I also do a lot of pro bono work because of my experience at United Methodist schools and the intern program.”

‘Lina McCord found a way’

One way to open the interns’ eyes is to show them the many ways the church supports their education – and not only through scholarships. Often it is through improving the school’s facilities.

For Charlie Coleman III, a student at Dillard University in New Orleans, it meant learning the church may have kept his school’s doors from closing. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed 43 buildings on the campus, and money from the Black College Fund was used to construct two new buildings.

“Seeing what it has done for my school makes me want to give just as much as I can back to The United Methodist Church and the Black College Fund as they have given to me,” Coleman said.

For Braque Talley, a senior at Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., the fund helps foster a community environment on campus.

“The president of our college served as a personal mentor to me. He calls me all the time. I had a car wreck last Christmas. The president calls me on my cell phone, ‘Are you OK? Is there anything the college can do to help you?’ Only at the United Methodist colleges can things like this happen … because our presidents believe in the tradition of ‘open hearts, open minds and open doors.’”

Knowing that United Methodists care enough about them to nurture their future gives each student a desire to give back.

Usha Satisha, a sophomore at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., said, “I would love when I graduate to give a quarter of my funds when I make it – because I’m gonna make it – to Bennett College. When you love something, you want to share it with other people.”

Walter Anton Lee, a senior at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., gives all the credit to the program’s founder.

The late Lina H. McCord, executive director of the Black College Fund from 1979 to 1985, helped institute the McCord student intern and ambassador program. UMNS file photo.

“Lina McCord found a way. She took the students—some of the actual images of success, some of the actual images of education—and showed The United Methodist Church what seeds we planted that cultivated into these crops of unprecedented success.”

Established in 1972, the Black College Fund supports the operations, programs and capital improvements for United Methodist-related historically black colleges. Today, The United Methodist Church supports 11 historically black colleges and universities – more than any other religious denomination.

Schools receiving Black College Fund support are:

• Bennett College for Women, Greensboro, N.C.
• Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C.
• Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta
• Dillard University, New Orleans
• Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas
• Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.
• Paine College, Augusta, Ga.
• Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark.
• Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss.
• Wiley College, Marshall, Texas

*Butler is editor of young adult content for United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn. Vicki Brown, associate editor and writer, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, contributed to this report.

News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5105 or newsdesk@umcom.org.