Strictly speaking, the newly endowed Alpha Phi Alpha Scholarship was six years in the making, but for Crandall Jones (\u201981), the impetus came far longer ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scholarship had been an idea of mine for years,\u201d said Jones, now the city manager of East Point, Ga. \u201cSince graduating with my MPA in 1983, I had kept in the back of my mind that one day I wanted to be in a position to give back to the University for all that the school had given to me, including my wife, Letha.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia Southern\u2019s Xi Tau Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha (APA) was founded in 1980 and at the fraternity\u2019s 25th Anniversary Banquet in 2005, Jones challenged the alumni and chapter to endow a scholarship. \u201cMy dear friend and our first pledge as a fraternity, Andre Washington, joined me in going to the University Foundation to set it up and, finally, we got it endowed through annual giving from alumni and the chapter itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my time at Georgia Southern, I was active in extracurricular activities \u2013 the Student Union Board, president of the Afro American Club and one of the charter members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity chapter,\u201d he said. \u201cIn addition to the obvious great education I received, I was also a two-time recipient of the Board of Regents Opportunity Scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all those blessings, I also enjoyed the mentoring and teaching of a great faculty in the Political Science department \u2013 Dr. Lane Van Tassell, Dr. Robert Dick, Dr. Justine Mann, Dr. John Daily to name a few,\u201d Jones said. \u201cMy activity also gave me the privilege to come to know, have routine access to, and establish friendships with people such as President Dale Lick, Harris Mobley and Dean of Students Jack Nolen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these people and more gave of themselves \u2014 to an extent that they did not have to \u2014 and I always appreciated it,\u201d he said. \u201cI always believed that doing something for GSU and helping someone else the way I was helped would be the best way to honor what was given to me \u2013 my way of paying it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the active members of the fraternity and the group\u2019s alumni contributed to the endowment, said APA brother Alvie Coes (`07), executive director of Statesboro\u2019s Hearts and Hands Clinic. \u201cIt\u2019s been a dual effort over the last five or six years between the graduate brothers and the undergraduate chapter.\u201d Coes said all fraternity alumni were asked to contribute $100 each year and the Xi Tau Chapter was asked to donate $3,000 through fundraising activities.<\/p>\n
Both groups have generously supported the effort, said Jones. \u201cI\u2019m forever grateful to both my fraternity\u2019s alumni and Xi Tau Chapter for making this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The University professors and administrators who helped mentor Jones also served as his inspiration to continue supporting Georgia Southern. \u201cThey had a great impression on my love of public administration and are a great part of why I am a public servant today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fraternity’s Generosity Supports Future Students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","tag-spring-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}