Homecoming scholarship salutes student’s community service

By Tyler Lewis
Contributing Writer

To be recognized for outstanding scholastic achievements and remarkably high grades in college is one thing, but to be rewarded for your selfless community service is an even greater feat. One local student got a shout-out over the airways when a Xavier alumnus used the university’s homecoming weekend to recognize such service in a live remote broadcast on Power 102.9 FM.

On Nov. 17, during Xavier University’s Homecoming, Jere A. Williams became the first Xavier University student to be given the McKay Connor Family Scholarship. The award of $1,000 will go to support Williams, a senior studying chemical engineering.

What made the event special was that Xavier alumnus Karl Connor’s wife, Monika McKay, created the scholarship to mark her husband’s 50th birthday in 2017. McKay organized the fund through the Greater New Orleans Foundation, where she sits as a board member.

Xavier alumnus Karl Connor (left) awards a homecoming weekend scholarship to current student Jere Williams (center right), a senior, on Nov. 17

“My wife started this fund with the help of my friends to give to Xavier students because they know how much I love Xavier and how much education means to me,” Connor said.

He selected Williams not only for her grade point average of 3.8, but also because of her many extra curricular activities within New Orleans. Every year, after election season, Williams holds a Soul Food Festival for everyone in the community. She does this to reunify the community after the elections. That determination to give back to her community demonstrated for the family why Williams was a great choice for the McKay Connor Scholarship Award.

“Even though I have other scholarships, this one means a lot to me because it shows that someone is watching my volunteerism that I put back into my community,” Williams said.

She plans to continue giving back to her community with the Soul Food Festival every year. “Receiving a big check for outstanding achievements felt different,” Williams said at the size of the award.

“She’s destined to do great things and if we can help her in any way possible then we certainly want to,” Connor said.

Connor, a former executive with British Petroleum, said going forward, he wants to help fill the void of the costs for school for the people who need it. He said he will continue to look for outstanding Xavier scholars with remarkable volunteer work to award them future McKay Connor scholarships.

Individuals interested in making donations to the McKay Connor Scholarship can do so on the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s website (www.gnof.org).

This article originally published in the November 26, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.