Hi.
I'm Norman Jones, a senior public policy
and administration major at JMU.
I'm also a proud member of the Honors
College.
I hold a number of student leadership
positions, but most notably,
I'm our student representative to the
Board of Visitors for the second year.
I have ties back to the university that
go way longer, you know, than these three
years so far.
My parents were alum, so I've been a Duke
for 21
years now. So I've been a student for
three. Hello. My name is Anne Collins.
I'm a graduate of JMU, 1967
and 1978. I was a history major.
I've taught public school for 36 years.
I have been very excited to be able to
return to campus frequently,
to be involved in the Honors program as
well as
to help with scholarships and
other donations to the school, to help
it
help other students. Could you talk a
little more about your relationship with
the Honors College? I always thought it
was a fascinating component of JMU.
Needless to say, I wasn't an Honors
student, but I had taught for 36 years,
and at the end of my career, I was
teaching AP American history and AP
psychology.
And I could sit in my classroom
and write an email to one of the history
professors,
asking a question, and I'd have an answer
by the end of the day.
Because that's JMU. Student-centric all
the way.
And that's why when it became an
opportunity for me to
create some scholarships, that's what I
did. I put it in the name of people
who had helped me. Same spirit of caring
people forward it also carries over in
scholarships, too, so it's not just about
what students have done, but it's about
what students can do.
And that's something that helps students
propel themselves into positions where
you are an educator for over 30 years.
Where you can go into law school and be
successful. You even have that option. You
know I'm still in my last year.
And to be able to, there's so many
students who may not have that as a
tangible reality for them,
to have a community that says, "these are
options we're willing to support you
with and things that we want to put in
your
in your peripheral view so that you can
go forward and be successful."
That is what I hear from so many
students
and why I feel very confident
in investing in you and all the other
kids. It's a pleasure,
it's an honor to be able to do it. I
wanted to ask you,
how else have you seen that legacy play
out in your career in your lifetime,
where you can say, "this is something I
gain from this university
that I have been able to share with
someone else?"
My senior year there was only one
African American student on campus.
She was a freshman. There was recently an
article about her in the alumni magazine.
Well, I was recently talking to a friend
of mine about the George Floyd
incident and how it has caused so many
people
to reexamine how much we don't know.
We're not taking as many history courses
that teach us everything, but that's the
reason
it's so gratifying to help other kids go
to JMU, where I know they'll get
a good education, whatever they choose to
major in.
We've got quality all across the board.
But it's just such a pleasure that in
November of every year,
I get to write a check that goes either
to the Hillcrest Scholarship
or to the Honors College or to the
history department.
I mean I can't tell you it's exciting
just to be able to write the check,
sign the check and know that it's gonna
help somebody.
In a general sense, college, higher
education in general because college, you
know, a standard university isn't the
only way you can learn about the world
but that kind of education about
experience
about a more global and open history,
like you mentioned.
Especially like you mentioned with
the tragedies of George Floyd and
Ahmaud Arbery and
justice still has yet to be found for
Brianna Taylor. And the inequities we see in our own
communities, the inequities that we see
even on our campuses. And we have to be
real and I'm glad that the university
over the past few years we've seen that
we have to deal with these things
if we want to be a model university, if
we want to continue
to bring in and support students that
may not come from traditional
backgrounds.
Because that experience of learning
about history
about our history, about the history of
our nation in our world and other people,
that is just too important to pass up.
It's just too valuable to
to exclude people from and
for me I'm very proud of the scholarship
opportunities that JMU provides
to make that happen. I mean the little
bit that I'm able to give
it is an honor to be able to do it, but
for other
alumni, it doesn't have to be mammoth
gifts
of millions of dollars like some of the
alums have given.
Bless them for being able to do it, but
it's the little ones all taken together
that can make JMU go up to that next
level
of helping everybody move forward.
We're at a point where we have a moment
and we have an opportunity to act,
and this is a university, this is an
institution that we care about.
So now let's do something about it and
be the Dukes we say we are
let's act in the way that we carry out
the rest of our lives.
you
