Anna Pearl Barrett, an alumna of Texas Southern University, along with the Houston Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta are creating new opportunities for students to study abroad in the future.
According to blackamericaweb.com, the sorority presented TSU with $150,500 from Barrett’s bequest to DST, which Texas Southern University’s Foundation matched to create one of the HBCU’s largest endowments: the Anna Pearl Barrett Houston Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
To quote Black America Web:
The $301,000 investment will financially assist students who desire to study in other countries and happens to fulfill one of the goals of International Awareness and Involvement, part of DST’s Five-Point Programmatic Thrust.
Barrett, a career educator who passed in 2014, was the first TSU exchange student to study in Spain. The school’s study abroad program began its initial journey to Tanzania in 2001 and today, more than 100 students travel abroad every year, per Gregory Maddox, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate School and Director of International Programs.
The scholarship helps raise the profile of studying abroad. According to the Institute of International Education, undergrad students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities participate in study abroad programs at lower rates than their counterparts across the U.S.
The Anna Pearl Barrett Memorial Endowed Scholarship was celebrated with a reception hosted earlier this month at TSU and attended by more than 200 Deltas as well as Barrett’s relatives, Mayor Sylvester Turner, TSU Acting President Ken Huewitt, TSU Vice President of University Advancement Melinda Spaulding, and a representative from the Office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.