Georgia Tech alumni increasing efforts to raise scholarship funds for

The Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization has started a year-long campaign to increase the number of its scholarships for black students.

The organization has scheduled a Leaders & Legends event on Sat., April 8 to recognize accomplished alumni, students, staff and faculty. The black-tie optional event will be at Tech's Academy of Medicine, 875 West Peachtree St. in Atlanta.

The endowment currently provides $35,000 in scholarships.

Tech has tried to increase the percentage of African-American students on its campus, which is currently about 7 percent.

This year’s honorees are:

Jacqueline Jones Royster, Tech's first African-American dean
Prof. Ronald L. Johnson, the National Basketball Association's first senior vice president of referee operations
Guy Primus, CEO of the Virtual Reality Co.
Sonya Rush, the alumni organization's founder
Karl Webster Barnes, grant writer with the Morehouse College Community Revitalization Initiative
Prof. Thomas "Danny" Boston
Carla Gilson, Tech's associate director of sports medicine
Michole Washington, founder of Afrithmetic, which promotes mathematics curriculum nationwide

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