By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, June 3, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B02
Christopher Sanders said he did not know he would receive an award at the annual Urban League Salute to African American Scholars until he arrived at the ceremonies Sunday in Hackensack.
“I looked in the program and it was like `Wow, first place! It’s inspiring,” said the Teaneck High School student.
Sanders essay on Democratic Party National Chairman Ronald Brown won him first place and a $1,000 scholarship. He said he plans to study architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark this fall.
About 300 camera-toting parents packed Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Edward Williams College auditorium to see the Urban League recognize and honor some 70 North Jersey middle and high school students.
After apologizing to the audience for the broken air conditioning that created sweltering conditions in the auditorium, FDU President Francis Mertz received applause when he announced that the school will award a four-year, $12,500 scholarship to an Urban League honoree every year, beginning in 1992.
Lenworth Gunther, president of Edmedia Associates Inc. and the day’s keynote speaker, said the students being honored were revolutionaries in a sense because they were defying stereotypes.
“This is just the first stage of what will be many honors and many recognitions, I hope,” Gunther said. “I want you brothers and sisters to understand that I am you, just a little older version. I don’t want to be expendable and I don’t want you to be expendable.”
Among the parents who attended were Edris Clarke, whose daughter Debbie Laine Clark, received an award for excellence. She will begin pre-med studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., this fall.
“I’m very proud of my daughter,” the elder Clarke said. “She is a very conscientious student . . . She says to me, `Mommy, I know where I’m going and I’m going to get there by God’s grace.”
Keywords: AWARD; BLACK; HACKENSACK; ORGANIZATION; STUDENT
Caption: PHOTO – COLLETTE FOURNIER / THE RECORD – Christopher Sanders of Teaneck congratulating fellow award-winner Michele M. Cherville of Paterson.
ID: 17345349 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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