Welcome!
Once Anthony Pilaro decided to sponsor CAP's Ron Brown Scholar Program he asked me to make it a reality, and then worked closely with me as I went about fashioning the organization. One of Mr. Pilaro's ideas had sounded deceptively simple: "Keep them together, Mike," he had said.
When the Selection Committee met the initial class of Ron Brown Scholars in March of 1997 there was little doubt the new program would be worthy of its namesake. Your energy level, commitment to social issues, and determination to succeed surpassed all expectations. Thus once that first class of Scholars existed, the CAP Charitable Foundation sensed the Program's probable long-term success; the first class was (italicize "was") first-class.
But our special joy has been that the Ron Brown Scholar Program doesn't merely help finance the education of outstanding students, though there's certainly satisfaction in finding and helping such young people. Increasingly, the joy has been in trying to give reality to that brief keep-them-together instruction, which has allowed me wide latitude in getting to know and work with individual Scholars and in promoting interaction among the Scholars themselves. Unlike most scholarship providers, our Ron Brown Scholar Program staff pays close and constant attention to what Scholars say about their needs, their programs, and pains and pleasures, their schools--actually to what they say about everything.
Helping to keep us functioning together and benefiting from each other, we now have the Ron Brown Alumni Association. The shape the Association takes and the role it plays in continuing our momentum will largely depend on the Scholars themselves. Anothony Pilaro envisioned a life-long association of extraordinary men and women, a group that would grow annually and whose intellect and dedication would do much to shape America.
Those of you whose graduations ease you into your new Ron Brown Alumni Association can serve as mentors and contributors to the universe of the Ron Brown Scholar Program.
Welcome!
Michael A. Mallory
mmallory@ronbrown.org
