Story: Phillip Tutor | Photo: Betsy Compton
Renfroe helping university to offer new minority scholarship for rural educators
Up in DeKalb County, near Lake Guntersville and about an hour鈥檚 drive from Huntsville, is where Brandon Renfroe teaches science at Geraldine High School. By almost any metric, from demographics and geography to socioeconomics and politics, that region of northeast Alabama鈥檚 Appalachian foothills seems as far from Livingston and the Black Belt鈥檚 western counties as it can be.
When he enrolled at the 宅男福利社, Renfroe鈥檚 innocent obliviousness about Sumter County鈥檚 realities began to dissolve. Impossible to ignore was the modern-day poverty that remains intertwined with the land once dominated by antebellum cotton fields.
Renfroe, a former preacher, saw opportunities to help, not merely hope.
鈥淚t’s the old dictum,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.鈥�
Two candles, in fact.
The first is the Future Rural Educator Scholarship, a new one-year award at 宅男福利社that will offer two high school graduates from the Black Belt region $500 each. The scholarship is geared for minorities who are first-generation college students and majoring in education. Renfroe, who is contributing $1,000 a year to the scholarship, is both its originator and its first donor.
The second is an embryonic effort to combat food insecurity among K-12 students in the Black Belt, where that malady is 11 times the national average, Renfroe said. Using on UWA鈥檚 campus as a starting point, he wants to raise donations to make the option of weekend take-home meals available to all UCS students who need them.
Renfroe, who graduated this spring from , dedicated his dissertation — 鈥淔ood Insecurity Among Students in Alabama鈥檚 Black Belt鈥� — to sustenance’s role in children鈥檚 well-being, but also in their ability to focus, learn and blossom at school. His dissertation recently received UWA鈥檚 Ed.D. in Rural Education鈥檚 Distinguished Dissertation of the Year Award.
He admits there鈥檚 a risk in sounding grandiose about reducing food insecurity because 鈥渢here aren’t easy solutions.鈥� But he鈥檚 willing to try.
鈥淚’m being honest with you,鈥� Renfroe said, 鈥測ou look at the Black Belt, how do you even begin to redress issues that have been 200, 300, 400 years in the making? How do we even begin if we’re talking about equity versus fairness? What would that look like in terms of how do we talk about reparation or redressing wrongs that have been perpetrated even before our country was a country? And what does that even begin to look like in terms of trying to address this?鈥�
鈥淢y donation was meager. We gave $1,000. That’s a drop in the bucket that will basically buy three textbooks. But what we’re hoping is that others will see the benefit of that.鈥�
— Brandon Renfroe
Dr. B.J. Kimbrough, UWA鈥檚 chief diversity officer and dean of the School of Graduate Studies, admits the obvious: 鈥淭his is a very rare case.鈥� It鈥檚 uncommon for graduating students to both propose and partially fund a new scholarship before commencement day. But Renfroe鈥檚 background — an Alabamian of faith with nearly two decades of teaching experience and no plans to seek a tenure-track position at a university — is a different breed.
鈥淗e’s a teacher. He’s an educator. He’s not like deep pockets or whatever,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 very frugal 鈥� But he’s also a lover of learning.鈥� Earning his doctorate, Kimbrough said, wasn鈥檛 based on career aspirations or pay increases; Renfroe鈥檚 desire was to learn, to improve. And discussions between student and advisors quickly turned to what the university鈥檚 graduate school dean described as a doctorate-level project that 鈥渉as the potential to do some great things.鈥�
The notion of starting a scholarship for rural educators didn鈥檛 start with either a revelation or financial need, Renfroe said. It was organic, a thought and a question. 鈥淚 told Dr. Kimbrough that I have been so moved by what I’ve learned through my studies that I would like to start a scholarship. I didn’t have anything particular, but I said, 鈥楧r. Kimbrough, how would you go about doing that? Because I have no knowledge of that.鈥欌��
Kimbrough mulled Renfroe鈥檚 question.
A month or two passed.
And then it was done, a lightning-fast accomplishment for what often takes eons in the glacial pace of higher education. Idea became concept became reality, seemingly overnight.
鈥淚t was actually all his idea,鈥� Kimbrough said. 鈥淲e labored the idea probably about a month or so before I even reached out to (UWA鈥檚 development office) about it. But he wanted to be very intentional about who got the scholarship and what area he wanted the student to come from and all of that.鈥�
The two candles are intertwined, Renfroe said, the food insecurity that disproportionately affects academic performances of Black Belt students, and the need to increase the roster of rural educators with the expertise required to navigate the region鈥檚 peculiarities. Improving one outcome pales when compared to simultaneously improving both.
鈥淲ho’s going to be teaching them?鈥� Renfroe said. 鈥淲hat can we do to help, especially like first-generation students that maybe have never gone to college? Let’s start a scholarship for future rural educators that will help minority students to get an education.
鈥淢y donation was meager. We gave $1,000. That’s a drop in the bucket that will basically buy three textbooks. But what we’re hoping is that others will see the benefit of that.鈥�
Kimbrough, whose family has Black Belt ties, is adamant about the possibilities surrounding the Future Rural Educator Scholarship. Viewing it through her eyes, or Renfroe鈥檚, is wholly different than seeing it from a student鈥檚 vantage point.
鈥淭he Black Belt is an impoverished area, and a lot of these students are coming from small-world schools, sometimes with limited opportunities,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd so whether it’s $500 or $1,000 for a first-generation college student whose parents or families are saving up and they’re using financial aid, every penny counts. Just to have somebody care enough to supplement, whether it’s a book or a food voucher, to have somebody care enough to take that burden off of them, that’s just overwhelming. That’s what this scholarship will do.鈥�