Spike Lee Launches New Fellowship for HBCU Students
Spike Lee, a Morehouse graduate and filmmaker, has decided to give back to historically Black colleges in a major way.
According to Deadline, he has partnered with The Gersh Agency to start a Fellows Program to help students attending schools in the Atlanta University Center Consortium including the following schools: Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Morris Brown, and ITC.
Only students in the undergraduate program are eligible.
The Spike Fellows Program will provide access and exposure to opportunities in entertainment. The first class will select graduating seniors from AUCC. The scholars will be selected by stakeholders in the AUCC and also members of the Gersh Agency’s management.
“It is with great honor, privilege, and excitement to announce the Spike Fellows in association with my partners The Gersh Agency and the AUCC,” said Lee. “From the jump, from the get-go, I knew when (not if) I opened a crack in the door, I was bringing as many Black and Brown folks with me in front and behind the camera.”
Recipients of the fellowship will not only walk away with debt relief, but they will also receive industry mentorship, post graduate internships and full-time employment at the agency.
Lee has an extensive relationship with the AUCC.
“I am who I am because of my grandmother (Zimmie Jackson) and my mother (Jacquelyn Shelton Lee) who both graduated from Spelman College. I am who I am because of my grandfather (Richard Jackson Shelton) and my father (William Lee) who both graduated from Morehouse,” Lee reflected.
Adding, “It’s on the campuses of Spelman and Morehouse where they met, fell in love, and got married. As my elders often told me, ‘Deeds not words.’”
The Academy Award winner is one of the most prolific graduates of the college, along with great men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Rev. John Henry Allen, Edwin Moses, and former Surgeon General David Satcher.
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