Through the tremendous generosity of Dr. Michele Curtis Penick, the Ebony Bobcat Network (EBN) has established the Ebony Bobcat Network, Dr. Michele Curtis Penick, 1966 Endowed Scholarship.
This scholarship is the second endowment for the EBN. It will benefit students majoring in early childhood and elementary education in Ohio University’s Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education. The scholarship, which gives preference to underrepresented students who demonstrate financial need, reflects a personal commitment by Penick, BSED ’66, to further her education and demonstrates her desire to foster the love of learning in others.
“The Ebony Bobcat Network is overwhelmed and honored by the generosity of Dr. Penick. We thank her for her belief in the potential of our youngest students, for her commitment to providing the financial assistance for students to become educators, for selecting her alma mater for them to start that journey, and lastly for choosing EBN as the steward of her legacy,” said Valerie Biggs-Hill, BSC ’78, president of the Ebony Bobcat Network. “It is my hope that the recipients of this scholarship pay it forward and encourage future Bobcats to become educators and serve in our most challenged communities.”
In making a planned gift to The Ohio University Foundation, Dr. Penick is making an impact that will be felt all the way back in Athens.
“I’d like to thank Dr. Penick for her dedication to Ohio University and the teaching profession,” said Dr. Renée A. Middleton, dean of the Patton College. “Her lifelong passion for making a difference may have begun in her undergraduate years, but it will continue for generations as she champions for our students and for diversity in education.”
Penick’s scholarship will not only provide life-changing assistance to the OHIO students following in her footsteps but is also advancing the mission of the EBN. Penick has long resided in Washington, D.C., where she is active in the EBN’s Washington, D.C., affiliate and serves on its Endowment Committee.
After graduating from OHIO, Penick worked as an educational social worker while earning a master’s degree in guidance and school counseling from Kansas State University. She went on to earn a doctoral degree in higher education from the University of Pittsburgh while working as a guidance counselor.
Penick’s passion for early childhood and elementary education dates back to the days she spent in a work-study position at Ohio University’s former Edwin Watts Chubb Library, where she read Dr. Seuss books to children from the local community. Her experiences there, in the classroom and in her career instilled in her a deep belief that a positive early educational experience is key to putting individuals on the path toward lifelong learning and success.
“Once you have a good foundation in your education – and I’m not just talking about learning cursive and your ABCs – but starting with a good experience, and developing a desire to learn, it lasts throughout your lifetime,” Penick said. “I believe that’s the crux to helping everyone.”
Penick’s own desire to learn brought her to Ohio University, where she not only earned her undergraduate degree but also developed lifelong friendships that decades later would be instrumental in the creation of the EBN.
One of those friendship was with Dr. Patricia Ackerman, BA ’66, who went on to have a distinguished career in the field of education and was the first African American woman to chair Ohio University’s Board of Trustees. Penick and Ackerman met as undergraduates living in OHIO’s Lindley Hall. Both were members of the TiDels, an interest group that led to the formation of Ohio University’s chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, established in 1963 as the first African American sorority on campus.
“They have been long-lasting friendships,” Penick said of the bonds she created with her fellow OHIO students. “Sometimes you make friends at a particular stage in your life, and then as you graduate, people move to different cities and you kind of lose contact, but this group of people, we have not done that. We’ve always stayed in touch whether we lived in Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Cincinnati or Texas, and I think it was because of our mutual commitment to better the lives of others.
Penick and Ackerman reconnected in the early 2000s. It was Ackerman who encouraged Penick to attend her first Black Alumni Reunion, which paved the way for Penick’s future involvement in the EBN and the creation of her scholarship.
“I think the Black Alumni Reunions really made her feel as though she wanted to be even more connected to OU than she had been,” Ackerman said. “And as she looked to the future and her own legacy, she decided that nothing made more sense to her than to establish this scholarship.”
One of OHIO’s alumni networks, the EBN strives to extend, preserve and promote the legacy of African American accomplishments while raising funds for the EBN Urban Scholarship Endowment. In April 2019, the EBN surpassed a $300,000 fundraising goal and endowed its first EBN scholarship. The scholarship created by Penick is the second EBN endowed scholarship.
The scholarship will give preference to students who are underrepresented in OHIO’s student body, those who have overcome obstacles such as socioeconomic or educational disadvantages, and those who are first-generation college students.
“I am beyond grateful to Dr. Penick for her generosity and dedication to our future early childhood and elementary educators,” said Dr. Gigi Secuban, Ohio University’s vice president for diversity and inclusion. “Teaching ranks among the most important professions in our society, and this scholarship endowment will help ensure that underrepresented students at OHIO can model OHIO’s core values of diversity and inclusion for future generations. The overwhelming generosity and commitment to excellence of the Ebony Bobcat Network is leaving an enduring legacy for our entire Bobcat family.”
Ackerman noted the impact Penick’s generosity will have in addressing disparities in the nation’s educational landscape, including the underrepresentation of African American teachers in the public education system.
“To be able to make a commitment at this time to make sure that African American educators continue to carry the banner of education, and to do that in a way that is unique to our experiences, is a very important thing to have done,” Ackerman said, citing the role African American educators known as the Jeanes supervisors played in southern rural schools and communities in the first half of the 20th century. “These educators to me embody the spirit of African American educators as I understand them, and I suggested to Dr. Penick that the recipients of her scholarship would likely be people who carry the spirit of those Jeanes supervisors.”
More than anything, Penick hopes the scholarship she created strengthens students’ commitment to the field of education.
“Some people major in education, and they teach for a couple years. Then they say, ‘OK, I want to go into technology, I want to go into marketing, I want to go into drama,’” Penick said. “Stay in education. That’s what I hope the students who receive this scholarship take away from it.”