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Tom Joyner Foundation offers $500,000 to help Barber-Scotia Scotia

Awards more than $1mm in funds to black colleges during live show

(Dallas, Texas July 2, 2004)  Tom Joyner, radio personality and chairman of the Tom Joyner Foundation, today announced that he is giving $500,000 to help students at Barber-Scotia College in Concord, N.C. to complete their education.

During the live Southwest Airlines Sky Show on the eve of the Essence Music Festival, Joyner, host of the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, presented a check to the 138-year-old college. The college recently lost its accreditation, and, in turn, potentially millions of dollars in federal financial aid. The foundation’s donation is earmarked for students enrolling in the 2004 academic year.

“The foundation’s charter simply states that we are in the business of helping students stay in school,” Joyner said. “We’re coming to the aide of Barber-Scotia to do what we can.”

The school’s new president, Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, Ph.D., who called into the live remote of the radio show, thanked Joyner and reassured listeners and the packed audience  at Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans, that, “We are here and we’re not going anywhere.  … We’re open for business.”

At Barber-Scotia, more than 90% of its more than 640 students receive financial aid. The college was originally founded in 1867 as Barber College. But in1932, it took on its current name after a merger with Scotia Women’s College.  The college recently named Bromell-Tinubu, a former professor at Atlanta’s Spelman College, as its president. 

The six-year-old foundation has awarded more than $25 million to thousands of deserving students. During today’s show, Joyner’s foundation awarded more than $1 million, including the money to Barber-Scotia, to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).  Southern University received a check for more than $230,000 and Grambling State University, more than $217,000.  “Our money is specifically earmarked to students to continue at HBCUs,” said Joyner, whose four-hour drive-time show is aired in more than 115 markets and reaches more than eight million listeners.

 

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