“Butterflies” Land HBCU Scholarships

“Enter to learn, Exit to serve”: That HBCU motto resonated Wednesday evening in a lively celebration at the Stetson Branch Library at the Q House on Dixwell Avenue.

There, among family, friends and a bevy of local graduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, eight young African-American Connecticut women were celebrated as recipients of scholarships from the Sharon Clemons Butterflies Fund.

The event was organized by the CT HBCU Alumni Network, headed by Engineering and Science University Magnet School ESUMS Principal) and proud Howard University) grad Medria Ellis-Blue.

Wednesday’s event, in the sun-filled and book-lined second floor community room of the library, hailed the third year of approximately $50,000 in annual scholarships being awarded to young Black women from Connecticut attending Tuskegee University, Hampton University, Spelman College, or Smith College.

Those are the four schools attended by the daughters of the late Sharon Clemons, the wife of ConnCORP CEO Erik Clemons, who is helping to lead the ongoing re-development of Dixwell Plaza.

Erik Clemons and his daughters, whom Sharon called her ​“butterflies,” launched the fund to honor Sharon, a salon owner who died of Covid in November 2020.

Clemons said, ​“I’ve been blessed in life to do many important things, but this is the best,” Erik Clemons said as the daughters and other grads chatted and networked with the recipients and their proud families.

With assistance from the fund, rising first-year Tiara Walters, an Amistad High School grad, plans to study elementary education. Rising sophomore Autymn Brown is majoring in theater. Both are headed this fall for Spelman. They said the scholarships, which average about $6,000, help them to spend more time on campus without worrying as much about finances.

The network administers scholarships for the HBCU-bound grads. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, where the fund resides, administers the scholarship to the students attending Smith College.

This year about 200 Connecticut students will be attending HBCUs, said Ellis-Blue. About half of those will attend Morgan State University.

There are more than 100 HBCUs to choose from, many in the Deep South. Recruiters from those institutions don’t often get to the Nutmeg State. That’s where the CT HBCU’s network of volunteers comes in, said Ellis-Blue.

The network, now in its fifth year, is known for its gala send-offs, full of marching band trills, beanies, and hoopla. Wednesday’s event was a more intimate kind of gathering ​“so students feel supported beyond the monetary contributions,” said Ellis-Blue.

But that they also should know the expectation is to come back and serve the community, she added. That’s where the Howard motto, ​“to enter to learn, to exit to serve,” came in .

The message resonated with scholarship recipient Alina Bajomo, a Co-op High School grad who will attend Hampton University to study theater. ​“This makes me want to give back,” she said.

“We need to keep the door open at all times,” said Ellis-Blue. ​“When the Black community thrives, America thrives.”