Students: apply by March 2 to compete for Rosa Parks Scholarships

By Georgie Fu

SUNY Fredonia’s Center for Multicultural Affairs (CMA) invites students to enter the 23rd Annual Rosa Parks Scholarship Competition. Three winners will be selected and awarded a $350 scholarship each.

All entries need to be submitted to the CMA, E125 Thompson Hall, by March 2 at 4 p.m. All current enrolled students are eligible to apply, with the exception of previous winners and professionals who have been paid for published work within the past five years. Winners will be announced on March 26 and invited to present their works at the award ceremony on April 3.

Various creative components of entries, including written, multimedia or performance pieces, with a focus on multiculturalism or cultural pluralism will be accepted for this competition. Written work must be typed and double-spaced within 10 pages. All 2D or 3D components must be submitted in their original form. Performances or multimedia presentations must be recorded on videotapes or recordable DVD discs. Each entry is required to enter with an entry form and a one-page typed summary that reflects the content of work. The entry form can be found at the CMA.

The Rosa Parks Scholarship Competition recognizes student-created expressions that explore multiculturalism and celebration of diversity through art, music, language, dance and other art forms. This award was founded in 1989 to honor Parks, an African-American Civil Rights activist whose act of civil disobedience – not surrendering her seat on a bus to a white passenger -- led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and helped launch the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement. 

The CMA implements educational, cultural, social and recreational presentations on diversity to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue across campus. It often develops and/or facilitates training programs for faculty, staff and students to increase sensitivity to multicultural issues and students of color. The Center for Multicultural Affairs attempts to encourage the campus community to investigate and acknowledge the various cultures that exist in this environment, recognize these differences and then celebrate and appreciate those very things that separate and yet bring such a community together.

To learn more, email the Graduate Assistant for the Center for Multicultural Affairs Carolyn Laurenzi or visit E125 Thompson Hall.