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Supporting Lincoln's Mission: Lincoln University Music Professor Dr. Alvin E. Amos (above) and his wife, Carol, have stepped up to the plate in support of Lincoln University's mission. Last year, they contributed $7,500 to create the Alvin E. and Carol B. Amos Scholarship Music Award. This year, they contributed an additional $13,000, increasing the endowment to $20,000.
Thanks to the inspired generosity of a Lincoln University professor and his wife, an endowment fund for a University music scholarship has grown from $7,500 to $20,000.
Lincoln University Music Professor Dr. Alvin E. Amos and his wife, Carol, a project engineer for DuPont Corporation, have contributed an additional $13,000 to the endowment fund for the Dr. Alvin E. and Carol B. Amos Scholarship Award in Music. They made the donation in the fall 2001 semester.
The couple originally established the fund in November 2000 with a $7,500 contribution as a way to "attract students who are on the verge of making a decision about enrolling at Lincoln University," Dr. Amos said.
The scholarship is awarded to an instrumental (non-piano) music major or minor with at least a 2.75 GPA, an interest in studying church music, and demonstrated performance ability. The first award of $500 went to freshman Aaron Owens of Philadelphia, a budding guitarist.
"I was surprised to know that I received this scholarship. To be the first recipient is a great honor," Owens said. "This scholarship was definitely a great help in my endeavor to help pay for my college education."
Dr. and Mrs. Amos contributed the additional $13,000 in hopes of increasing the amount of the next award. Dr. Amos is also hoping his colleagues will follow suit and contribute to this fund or start a new endowment. "The scholarship might be an additional incentive" for top-ranking students to make Lincoln University their institution of choice, he added.
Owens, 18, is a graduate of Philadelphia's Parkway High School, a secondary school designed for students planning careers in music. He learned about his award this past Labor Day while performing at the 12th annual Tony William Jazz Scholarship Festival held at the Cherry Hill Hilton in Cherry Hill, N.J. And it wasn't the only bit of good news he received.
Budding Guitarist: Aaron Owens, 18, of Philadelphia, called his selection as the first recipient of the Amos Scholarship Award in Music an "extreme honor." The freshman learned about his award during a Labor Day jazz performance held in Cherry Hill, N.J.
Owens also received a brand new Ibanez guitar from one of his idols - guitarist and multiple Grammy-winner, George Benson. Benson is the jazz guitarist who is responsible for creating some of the best selling jazz albums of all time, including Breezin' (1984), which sold three million copies, and Give Me the Night (1980), which sold one million copies.
Benson inspired Owens to take up the guitar. As a child, Owens said he heard Benson's music and told his parents he wanted to learn to play. In addition, Owen's late uncle, Thornel Schwartz, was one of Benson's mentors.
"I was totally shocked when I received the guitar," Owens said. "To receive a guitar from someone that I idolized for my whole musical life was an extreme honor. I was proud that he thought enough of me to do something like that."
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, Historically Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a highly technological and global society.
Lincoln University is ranked first in Pennsylvania and second in the nation in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences. Lincoln is also the only university in the Commonwealth and one of but 20 universities nationwide where 40 percent or more of its physics graduates are women.