Supporting the Reggie Howard Scholars at Duke University

Reginaldo Howard was the first minority president of the Duke student government. An Angier B. Duke Scholar, Reggie died in a car crash in 1976, while driving to Durham from his home in Columbia, South Carolina, to attend a meeting of the Duke University Board of Trustees.

Reggie Howard's parents started a scholarship endowment in memory of their son. Over the years, students, members of the Duke University Black Alumni Connection (DUBAC), and other donors have made additional gifts to endowments supporting the Reggie Howard Scholars. By June 2007, gifts to these funds and their investment appreciation added up to more than $4.2 million, with more than $500,000 in the DUBAC Leadership Endowment alone.

These scholarships endowments, along with significant investments from the university, help support and recruit outstanding students of African heritage. About five new four-year Reggie Howard Scholarships are awarded annually. Scholarships cover tuition and mandatory fees as well as room and board, and are valued at approximately $48,000 a year. Additional support is also available for research, study abroad, and other enrichment opportunities.

"Reggies," as the scholarship holders are familiarly known, come from Honey Creek, Georgia, and Windham, New Hampshire; from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Sugarland, Texas; from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Blackville, South Carolina; from Ghana and Jamaica. Their academic majors range from biology and political science to public policy and English literature. They study abroad in Greece, Spain, and Argentina. They play in the Duke Symphony Orchestra and sing in the United in Praise Gospel Choir. They are active with Black Male OutReach and Education (BMORE) and "Talking Drum," a publication of the Black Student Alliance. They are members of the women's Ultimate Frisbee team and the varsity fencing team.

Reggies are part of an extraordinary community. They support one another personally and academically, creating study groups and informal mentoring relationships. Reggies engaged in research or independent study can share their progress in an environment of support and encouragement. Reggies even assist with the selection of new scholars each year.

And Reggies are campus leaders. Each spring, they organize an event to honor the memory of their namesake with speakers on topics of relevance to African American and African students. The 2006 "Reggie Week" celebrated through photographs, speeches, discussion, film, and song the history of black activism on campus. The scholars presented Reggie Howard's family with a commemorative plaque placed in the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

Duke is currently engaged in a university-wide Financial Aid Initiative to raise new endowment for financial aid. To encourage support, a small group of donors committed to match many new scholarship gifts dollar for dollar.

DUBAC is seizing this opportunity to strengthen the Reggie Howard Scholars program. An effort is now underway to increase the DUBAC Leadership Endowment, which supports the Reggie Howard Scholars. To date, DUBAC has raised more than $390,000, which is being matched dollar for dollar, adding more than $780,000 to the endowment.

Matching funds are still available.  Please join the many DUBAC members and friends who are participating in this effort.  Fund-raising will continue through December 31, 2008, when Duke's Financial Aid Initiative comes to a close.