The Jerome Alston Memorial Foundation hosted a 5k run at Griffith Park in late February to raise money for college scholarships.
“People like to support education, children, and—more importantly—young men,” said founder and executive director of the foundation Whitney Alston.
Alston created the foundation to honor her late father, Jerome Alston. Jerome was a teacher and mentored a group of boys, naming them ‘Men of Distinction.’
“What the foundation is doing is keeping his legacy alive,” said Alston. “The foundation focuses on youth development,”
Participants paid $35 and the proceeds went to the scholarship.
“This year, we ended up bringing in over $4500 in scholarship (money),” said Alston.
Will Packer Productions and California Community Foundation were some of the organizations that provided donations. Blue Shield, GirlTrek, and 93.5 KDAY also showed support on the day of the 5k.
The scholarships are given to young black men from Los Angeles who plan on going to a historically black college or university (HBCU) to further their education. Applicants can be either high school or community college students. The foundation has already established a scholarship fund at Virginia State University, the alma mater of Alston’s father.
“We—one—want to promote our HBCUs,” Alston said. “We also want to help get our males one, into college, two into our HBCU’s,”
Applicants must have a minimum 2.25 GPA and they must have been accepted to a HBCU with plans of attending. Other requirements for the application include two letters of recommendation, a biography, and an essay.
Alston, a second-generation HBCU alum, enjoyed her time at Howard University. She desires to show that HBCUs are still relevant to modern society.
“The HBCU is an experience like none other,” she said. “You get a deeply rooted feeling of self-connection and involvement, you get to learn about you culture because the teachers there are so passionate about the black and African American culture.”
Whitney plans to make the scholarship 5k an annual event in Los Angeles.
“We are trying to get this event to be one of the staple [events] for Black History Month,” Alston said. “The more participants that we have, the more sponsors that we have, the more scholarship dollars we can give away.”
On May 14th, the foundation will be hosting asthma awareness 5k at Griffith Park. For more information about the foundation, visit www.jeromealston.org
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