Claflin University has established an endowment for inmates whose incarceration has ended and qualify to attend the university as first-generation students. The L.E.A.Dership Promise Endowed Scholarship Fund will provide those studentsaccess to Claflin’s transformational academic, cultural and social experiences.
The endowment was created through donations from the LEAD Firm, founded in August 2017 by Mr. Jarrod D. Benjamin and Ms. Taylor D. McCain. The organization is a comprehensive higher education consulting firm based in Greensboro, N.C., that specializes in student, staff, and faculty programming, curriculum design, and leadership conference planning and implementation.
“We established The LEAD Firm to ensure that equitable and culturally relevant programs are available for Gen Z and Millennial students,” said Benjamin. “Our goal is to continue to create pathways to success. This is our leadership promise to our community. We are committed to closing the socio-economic gap preventing students of color from completing their educational goals. Claflin University provides mentorship, co-curricular engagement and workforce development. These were the attributes we sought out when deciding on the institution we would invest in.”
Claflin’s Pathway from Prisons and Second Chance Pell Grant programs are consistent with the goals of the leadership Promise Endowed Scholarship Fund. Both initiatives are coordinated by Claflin’s Center for Social Justice. The Pathway from Prisons Program will offer bachelor’s degree programs to incarcerated individuals in the S.C. Department of Corrections. The Second Chance Pell Grant - funded by the U.S. Department of Education provides need-based Federal Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals in federal and state prisons.
“We are extremely pleased that Mr. Benjamin and his colleagues at the LEAD Firm chose Claflin for this life changing opportunity for the prison population in our state,” said Dr. Marcus Burgess, the University’s interim vice president for institutional advancement. “The scholarship is congruent with the University’s mission to be a catalyst forpersonal and professional fulfillment that also embraces diversity and inclusion.”
Burgess said that Claflin and the LEAD firm will announce later when students can apply for the scholarship. However, individuals or organizations interested in providing financial support for the L.E.A.Dership Promise Endowed Scholarship can donate at
https://alumni.claflin.edu/the-leadership-promise-esf