African American Catholic Community
African American Scholarships for students attending Catholic School are very important to the students and their parents. The solid foundation for a faith centered education is what every parent strives to provide for their child. There are, however, many challenges low-income families face with the issue of affordability.
In 2009, the Fr. Rollins Lambert Scholarship fund was created to help individuals attend Catholic School. Former educators of the public school system, Gerry Harge and Louise Davis became aware of the importance of helping students who want to attend Catholic Schools. In 2015, these two women saw that low-income African American families could not afford tuition or school supplies. Davis knows students are important to all the schools and worked closely with Queen of Heaven Catholic School in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. At the time, the pastor of the school was Tim Martinez, and they decided to get something started for the students and parents which was a school supply drive. Instead of the teachers paying out of pocket for supplies.
Now she has more than enough donation boxes to collect school supplies at schools and churches, but individuals donating need to be "All In." Some of the places who decided to help with the drive are St. Josephs on the Rio Grande and Garsons Religious store in Albuquerque.
Students who apply have to be in grades K-8th, and those interested in applying for scholarships can get paper copies of the applications at every school. Gerry is part of the committee for the African American community where they follow procedures and policies for students applying. They work with the office of Social Justice and Respect Life at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and receive about 20 scholarships per year. There are various amounts awarded because each family is different. For their 10th year with the scholarships, they awarded over 70 with $16,000 for students attending Catholic Schools.
"Some of the letters are heart wrenching because a lot of the participants are grandparents raising their grandchildren and want them to have a good Catholic education and are helping children in every way. Scholarships and supplies are really important. The teachers, students and parents are very grateful." -Louise Davis, Head of School Supply Drive.
