Senior music education major Kelley Hall was surprised when he learned the Tom Joyner Foundation selected him as its Hercules Scholar at Grambling State University.
Hall decided on Grambling State to be a part of the World Famed Tiger Marching Band, and he has marched in the band for three years. He is also involved in several extracurricular activities on and off campus.
”I was a student leader, drill sergeant, and section leader over the tuba section,” said Hall, whose scholarship was announced on The Tom Joyner Morning Show Thursday (Sept. 19). “I also participate in the university wind ensemble, a member of the Strong Tower Gospel Chorale here in the Grambling area, and I was inducted into the Earl Lester Cole Honors College.”
all, who has a 3.86 GPA, has aspirations to become a middle or high school band director then a band director at the collegiate level. “When I finish my matriculation here at Grambling State University, I plan to find work at a low-income middle school,” said Hall. “The students that will be in my music program will be ‘blank slates’ that I can teach from scratch …”
n Sept. 1, Grambling State University was named by the foundation as its September school of the month. Hall, a Springhill, La., native, will receive a $1,500 scholarship.
arlier this month, the foundation awarded scholarships to sophomore Pierre L. Moore, 19, and junior Lionel Kilolonyuy-Sandjong, 22. The foundation is helping Grambling State with student scholarships by asking friends, students, alumni to participate by making donations at www.tomjoynerfoundation.org.
ounded in 1998, the foundation has helped raised over $60 million to help students attending historically black college and universities to access more scholarships and stay in school.
he Hercules Scholarship is named after Tom Joyner’s father, the late Hercules Joyner, who was an education advocate. Scholarship recipients are chosen based on community and leadership skills, a minimum GPA of 3.5 and be a male attending an HBCU of the month.