130 Black youths inaugurated into new MDC program aimed at aiding students of color

Miami Dade College began a new path of community uplift on Tuesday as it inaugurated 130 freshly graduated high school seniors into the new Rising Black Scholars Program that aims to aid the students financially and emotionally.

About 400 family members, MDC faculty and staff, community leaders and scholars gathered at the Miami Dade College North Campus Conference Center.

In suits and formal dressing, 130 Black men and women beamed as they joined MDC’s first class of the Rising Black Scholars Program.

By earning a spot in the program, beating out hundreds of other competitors, these scholars will receive free tuition for up to 30 credits plus fees per year, book stipends, a laptop computer, and scholarship opportunities.

These scholars were given a laptop and a pin at the event.

The event had a cast of noteworthy speakers who shared with the scholars stories of how they should find self-worth as well as how they should support themselves and each other.

Among these speakers were Felecia Hatcher, CEO of Black and Ambition, who gave the keynote and a White House Champion of Change Honoree; Miami-Dade Judge Rodney Smith; MDC President Madeline Pumariega; and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson.

“We believe in you. We believe in your dreams,” Pumariega told scholars during the beginning of the ceremony. “Every single one of us at MDC... is invested in your success.”

Wilson said the program plays an important role for families who are unable to send students to college.

“College tuition has outpaced middle-class paychecks, so it is hard for parents to send their kids to college. So, young men and young ladies you are blessed,” Wilson said.

Judge Smith officially inaugurated the scholars. He told them that he was once like them and knew the importance of striving for success.

“I called myself the skinny kid from Liberty City with big dreams,” Smith said. “I know what it is like to start from nothing, yet to have hopes and dreams.”

Among the inaugurated were 59 Black men who are part of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a long-running mentoring program founded by Wilson for young men of color in Miami-Dade.

These men, clad in new black suits and the project’s signature red tie, also had the honor of being inducted into the project’s inaugural 5000 Role Models of Excellence MDC Alumni Chapter.

Addressing the newly inducted men in the Alumni Chapter, Wilson said: “I had a hearing in Washington on a Zoom, and it said one in three of every Black man is either in the criminal justice system, coming out of [it] or going into [it.]

“The investment that we are making into your lives today, we know you have no place in that statistic.”

“My heart is with these little Black boys, and you can see tonight the difference,” Wilson said. “It is hard being a Black boy in America today.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 9:31 PM.