On Wednesday, September 27th at 10:00 am Alcorn State University’s (ASU) own Oakland Memorial Chapel was the meeting place for the University’s annual Founder’s Day Convocation. The ceremony is held yearly to remind students, alumni, faculty and staff of just how far the Institution has come. ASU was founded in 1871 as a strictly male college with a student body of only 179 members who attended classes from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm and worked in the afternoon for just eight cents an hour in an effort to pay off their school fees. Today Alcorn is home to more than 3,000 students and the student enrollment rate is constantly rising. In fact, in the past three years, Alcorn has seen it’s highest Freshman enrollment rate of all time.
As the program began Alcorn’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) presented the colors to set the scene for the Founder’s Day Convocation panel which consisted of Miss Alcorn State University 2018-2019, Moriah Batiest, the 2018- 2019 Student Government Association (SGA) President, Robert Tatum Jr., Dr. Gwen Boyd, Dr. Earline Strickland, Dr. Josephine M. Posey, and Reverend Neddie Winters. The ceremony officially began shortly after. The Agricultural Choir gave a glorious rendition of the gospel song “Amen” and members of Alcorn State’s Alumni Chapter, Dr. Strickland and Dr. Posey, shared their personal memories of how Alcorn was when they attended and how much the school has changed for the better.
“Come to Alcorn and come with a purpose and you’ll find that you are as smart and can go as far as any other student in any other school,” said Dr. Strickland.
Drs. Strickland and Posey weren’t the only ones with memories and wise words for those attending the program. Reverend Neddie Winters was the speaker at the ceremony and his sermon told how Alcorn was built on faith and a firm belief in God. He spoke of how we (ASU) have come so far and how we can go even further if we continue to have faith in God and in ourselves.
“God said do not despise small beginnings and this was my small beginning and I’ve gone on to do great things and when I think about succeeding against great odds I think about we as African Americans constantly succeeding throughout history,” said Rev. Winters.