Terrance Jenkins

Contributor

East Stroudsburg University students are the focus of a $25,000 scholarship endowment campaign led by the Alpha Eta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. The effort advanced with a $5,000 check presented to the ESU Foundation on Sept. 25.

The campaign seeks to establish lasting support through the Alpha Eta Scholarship, helping eligible ESU students meet the cost of continuing their education. It also offers current student members an opportunity to work with alumni on a campus initiative whose benefits can extend beyond their own graduation.

An endowment is a fund invested for long-term support, with distributions governed by the Foundation’s spending policy and the fund agreement. Rather than spending the entire gift on a single award, the aim is to sustain scholarship assistance for successive generations of ESU students. The $5,000 contribution is one step toward the $25,000 goal.

Alpha Eta alumni Brian Twyman and Terrance Jenkins presented the check on campus to Richard “Rich” Santoro, executive director of the ESU Foundation. The fundraising effort has received support from Alpha Eta alumni, graduate members of Eta Mu Nu Chapter and the Movement and Improvement Uplift Foundation, Inc.

The campaign builds on Alpha Eta’s 50th-anniversary celebration in 2024 and the fraternity’s longstanding presence at ESU. The university’s official historical timeline identifies Omega Psi Phi as the campus’s first African-American fraternity, beginning in 1973. The scholarship effort seeks to carry that history forward through educational opportunity.

Organizers want current student members to help lead campus outreach, encourage participation and connect students with scholarship information as the effort develops. Scholarship eligibility, selection and award timing will follow the fund agreement and university procedures.

The immediate priority is completing the endowment campaign. Its broader purpose is to connect alumni support with student leadership and build a continuing source of educational assistance on the ESU campus.