Post by pedanticwench on Jun 12, 2012 16:14:10 GMT -5
I really think this is a non-story. Whether or not he applied knowing full well he wasn't the right candidate, he returned the money in less than 24 hours.
There is no reason to continue to lambast this kid.
I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books? I shall only engage in commerce if books are the coin. -- Catherynne M. Valente
Since his dad, the English teacher, even said the application was unclear, I'm going to go with the "he is just trying to get some money for school" theory. My evidence lies mostly in that the teachers are collecting money for him...teachers don't do nice stuff like that for the little shits.
I'm sure he didn't STILL think he should have the scholarship after he found out it wasn't supposed to go to a white kid.
He still knew something was wrong, though, if he was questionable on his inclusion to the interview process.
I read it as the fact that his family figured that someone would eventually realize he was white. No one ever did. And therefore after the scholarship was awarded they realized, "Hmm, in retrospect, I guess since the interview was on the phone there was never a way to tell he was white."
I think not asking the applicant to indicate their race (for a private scholarship, would this be okay?) or seeing him at all is also a misstep on behalf of the scholarship people. But an honest mistake all around.
Also, some kids are go-getters and apply for scholarships they might never be eligible for. I KNOW we've seen examples of people applying for jobs they aren't qualified for. The more shit you throw at a wall, the more that will stick. Or something.
While a cover letter to guidance counselors indicated that the award was intended only for black students
How much clearer does it need to get?
that letter doesn't go to the students. it's literally a cover letter on the top of the packet of applications.
his guidance counselor, OTOH, should have told him.
This is exactly where I am at. If anyone is at fault it is the guidance counselor, but I really don't think this is a big deal. He was nice to return the money, but I certainly do not think that this was an intentional move on anyones part.
that letter doesn't go to the students. it's literally a cover letter on the top of the packet of applications.
his guidance counselor, OTOH, should have told him.
This is exactly where I am at. If anyone is at fault it is the guidance counselor, but I really don't think this is a big deal. He was nice to return the money, but I certainly do not think that this was an intentional move on anyones part.
When I was in high school these applications were on a table by the office. No interaction with the guidance counselor required.
Post by copzgirl1171 on Jun 12, 2012 19:02:56 GMT -5
MrDoblina for the win. I hate the implication that this kid was "stealing" from another student. Encouraged is not the same as only accepting X criteria meeting students.
Post by copzgirl1171 on Jun 12, 2012 19:03:33 GMT -5
MrDoblina for the win. I hate the implication that this kid was "stealing" from another student. Encouraged is not the same as only accepting X criteria meeting students.
This reminds of the girl from my school who got both the "future teacher" scholarship from the teachers and the "future pharmacist" scholarship from the pharmacists. Lol. That was a funny ceremony.
Anyway team HAB. MLK embodied many important qualities that know no race. If the award merely encouraged minorities to apply than on the face of it anyone could apply.
While I don't think the kid was mean spirited or anything I do think that anything that has to do with MLK probably has some ties to race (MLK blvd anyone?). Maybe he did not realize that but he did when there were chuckles etc. About the "content of character" reference, but for the fact that he applied for something that he was not the intended audience for the committee would not be able to judge his character against the character of any other applicant. Further, many times there is literally a slither of difference from the pool of candidates and he was not the intended pool of applicants. As someone who won some award money from a variety of sources including some AA fraternities/ sororities I take issue with acting like it is NBD. I applied based on the fact that I fit the race requirement and other requirements. Additionally, I did not apply for the "C" student award as that did not apply to me although I did get a C in ALgebra II once.
The right thing to do would have been to give the kid back the scholarship he returned.
I'm pretty sure MLK's whole deal was having no differences between the races.
Exactly. It seems hypocritical to have an MLK scholarship that is only open to people with a certain color of skin. But if the scholarship was only intended for African-Americans, the application should have stated that.
When a student who won a scholarship for African-American students walked to the stage at a Riverside, Calif., high school to pick up his award, the audience laughed nervously. The student, Jeffrey Warren, was white.
Warren, 17, a recent graduate of Riverside's King High School, won a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by Riverside's Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club. While a cover letter to guidance counselors indicated that the award was intended only for black students, the application merely "encourage[d] African-American students to apply," according to King High School Principal Darel Hansen.
The morning after the ceremony, Warren returned the money. Since then, his story has made national headlines.
Warren's father Rod, a language arts teacher at King High School, said he told his son to apply for every scholarship for which he might be eligible. Since the application did not explicitly rule out non-black applicants, the soon-to-be San Diego State freshman gave it a shot. Out of the 27 scholarships for which he applied, he won four, including the one he later gave up.
"The laughter was slight at the beginning, then it got louder," Rod Warren said. "You could tell the [award presenters] were surprised, but they shook his hand and gave it to him."
When the Warrens returned home from the ceremony, they concluded that returning the money was the right thing to do.
Etta Brown, the chairwoman of the MLK Senior Citizens Club's scholarships committee, said she was shocked when she realized the winner of her group's scholarship was a white student. Since the scholarship was created in 2005, it had never been awarded to a non-black student.
Warren's decision to return the award was "generous," she said. Since the application did not explicitly disqualify non-black students, she said the group would not have asked Warren to give it back, despite some internal debate.
In the future, the application will be worded more clearly, she said.
Rod Warren said his son reasoned that if he were ineligible for the scholarship, the issue would be resolved at the interview stage of the application process. The interview, however, was over the phone, and Brown said it never occurred to the reader who interviewed Warren that the interviewee might be white.
After news of Jeffrey's decision to decline the scholarship spread, Susan Jaggers, his former math teacher, launched a campaign to compensate him for the sacrifice. Circulating a framed picture of Warren to all the teachers whose classes he took at King High School, Jaggers has so far yielded $351.
"We didn't totally replace the money, but I knew many of [Warren's former teachers] would be willing to throw a few bones," Jaggers said. "All his teachers love him."
Warren's scholarship has been given to an African-American student who will be attending Cornell University in the fall. The second of the scholarship's two winners is a North High School student who will be attending Xavier University.
Ironically, the committee judged him on the content of his character, and not the color of his skin.
Love.
Internal debate about letting him keep it? Ugh. Maybe next year they can require a picture. I think the guidance counselor probably tossed everything but the applications and put them in a stack with all of the other applications. As someone who frequents these offices, I can attest to the lack of vetting that the counselor should be responsible for. Additionally, I was called and interviewed for scholarships my senior year and I could barely remember filling out the application so Im betting that he is just a great student who was doing as much as he could to get money for college and not following the non-existant fine print on all of these processes..
I really think this is a non-story. Whether or not he applied knowing full well he wasn't the right candidate, he returned the money in less than 24 hours.
There is no reason to continue to lambast this kid.
ALL OF THIS.
The wording was faulty and that's the problem of the organization, not the kid. Honestly, I were a member of the committee, I'd move that he be allowed to keep the scholarship. Obviously, his application was stellar and as such he was awarded the scholarship.
There is too much over analysis in this thread. Not everything needs to be examined under a microscope and made into a CEP board war. This is not the new Skittles people.
Me too - only because you seem to be all over the place. First you say that one cannot discriminate, then you cite the language in the letter stating it was "intended" for black students only, then you say you agree with HAB that he should have been given the scholarship back, and then he's a little shit who should have known better. I'm all sorts of confused.
Dude, if he was an uber douche who was trying to pull one over on the poor little old black folks who run the senior center, why would he have returned the scholarship?
Given that he did, I'm going to assume the lights weren't flashing as brightly as some are assuming.
Yeah and the dad said "apply for everything you're eligible for." He probably went in to the guidance office and asked for "everything I am eligible for" and was given a stack of paperwork. He probably wrote one essay and distributed, got call backs for interviews and it was all a mind numbing process. At least this was how scholarship applications were for me...
And clearly there was something about his, besides his race, that made his application and subsequent phone interview appealing to the committee that gives the scholarship.
I think it was nice, but not necessarily heroic, of him to give it back even though he earned it.
And I like HAB's earlier comment that the color blind interview may have been just what MLK would have wanted...