- Posted in All University
- Category: AlumniCampus News
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA – A Philadelphia Police captain and alumna Jacqueline Bailey-Pittman, M.Ed. '00 donated $50,000 on Tuesday to establish the Jacqueline L. Bailey-Pittman Endowed Scholarship for Philadelphia students majoring in criminal justice at Lincoln University.
The scholarship, which will offer a $500 or more award and be given each year to one male and one female upperclassmen, full-time student from Philadelphia majoring in criminal justice with at least a 2.5 G.P.A. or higher, was inspired by Bailey-Pittman's gratitude for her instructors and mentors at University of Cincinnati, where she received her undergraduate degree, Lincoln University, superiors in law enforcement as well as those in her family. Among them were University of Cincinnati professors, Dr. P. Eric Abercrumbie, professor of African American studies; Dr. Francis Cullen, professor of Criminal Justice; Dr. Judith Thomas, former Lincoln University Education department chairwoman; Chief Clarence Williams, the former Cincinnati Police lieutenant, who supervised her year-long practicum with that department; and Bailey-Pittman's own grandmother, Lillie Bailey.
Philadelphia Police Captain Jacqueline Bailey-Pittman and Lincoln University interim President Dr. Richard Green
“If I didn't have those educators, mentors and others who were there for me, where would I be?” she asked rhetorically. “I wanted to see my legacy while I was alive. My fiancé (Thomas Davis, also a Philadelphia police sergeant) understood it and my aide understood it, but there were others, who were like keep that money. You can't take it with you so I thank God that I am able to do this.”
Lincoln's interim President Dr. Richard Green expressed his appreciation for Bailey-Pittman's generosity and efforts.
“I really want to express the appreciation of Lincoln University,” he said in luncheon ceremony at the university's International Cultural Center (ICC) . “You are representing us well in all you do in the state of Pennsylvania, in the city of Philadelphia and now with our students.”
Bailey-Pittman, 45, who is also passionate about teaching and sharing financial fitness and financial literacy strategies to students and those in the community, grew up in the Passyunk Holmes, a South Philadelphia housing project with her mother and sister before her mother met her stepfather and they relocated to West Oak Lane, where she later graduated from Martin Luther King High School.
“I make a captain's salary, six figures, but I live off a sergeant's salary, which is roughly half my income,” she said, explaining how she was able to make the donation. “I know that I am the only one in my immediate family when something goes wrong. Everyone calls me. I am the caretaker.”
The 18-year-veteran, who serves as the Philadelphia Police Department Liaison for the Department of Justice responsible for implementing the 91 DOJ recommendations and the 62 recommendations of President Obama's 21st Century Task Force, teaches criminal justice part time at Alvernia University in Reading, PA and serves as its criminal justice coordinator, credits her grandmother for instilling planning, thriftiness and living debt-free.
“She had an 8th grade education and that's the person I learned the most from even about finances,” she said. “She always told me that you never want to be a slave to your money. She passed away in 2002 and she didn't owe a dime. No mortgage or anything. She bought a house in Philadelphia. She paid it off. She bought a car she paid it off.”
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University (PA) is the FIRST of four Lincoln Universities in the world and is the nation's FIRST degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The University combines the elements of a liberal arts and science-based undergraduate curriculum along with select graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society. Today, Lincoln, which enrolls a diverse student body of approximately 2,000 men and women, possesses an international reputation for preparing and producing world-class leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, the FIRST African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice; Lillian Fishburne, the FIRST African American woman promoted to Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy; Langston Hughes, the noted poet; Kwame Nkrumah, the FIRST president of Ghana; Nnamdi Azikiwe, the FIRST president of Nigeria and a myriad of others.