Alumna turns her painful family legacy into a beacon of hope for future MTSU students by Patsy B. Weiler
In 2020 on Juneteenth (June 19), a new federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, alumna Anita Scott Smith signed paperwork to honor her parents with a scholarship at MTSU. The annual James R. and Betty Y. Scott Scholarship will help underrepresented students pursue degrees in education. “When I was a student at MTSU, a lot of people took me under their wing who had confidence in my ability. The grants I received helped me graduate. I want to provide similar encouragement and financial support for a student who could use a little assistance,” said Smith, who earned three MTSU degrees— a bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education (’81), an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (’83), and an Ed.S. (’96). “When I earned my master’s degree, I went by my father’s grave to share my accomplishment with him,” Smith said. She went again after receiving her specialist’s degree, this time to visit both her parents. Her parents graduated in the mid-1950s from historic Holloway High School, which opened in 1929 and remains a small secondary school today. The brick building on South Highland Avenue in Murfreesboro is the last and one of the few remaining structures built with help from the Rosenwald School project in the early 20th century, to provide public education for Black children in the rural, segregated South. Smith’s gift continues the legacy of assisting students in an underserved population.
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“Scholarships supporting historically under-resourced teacher candidates aid in the elimination of achievement gaps and is often the only way for those students to attend and graduate from college,” said Michelle Stevens, director of the Fairness, Justice, and Equity Center in MTSU’s College of Education. “Removing those gaps promotes diversity in our educational systems and yields creativity, new insights, a multiplicity of perspectives, and innovative skills, which are beneficial for students and teachers of all backgrounds.”
