WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 1999—A. Barry Rand, newly appointed chairman and CEO of Avis Rent A Car, Inc., has endowed a scholarship fund in his mother’s name for the Howard University School of Education. According to Rand, the Helen Matthews Rand Endowed Scholarship was established in recognition of his late mother’s distinguished career and dedication to urban education and community service. Mrs. Rand was a teacher and a principal during more than two decades of service to the D.C. Public Schools system.

The scholarship provides full tuition funding, a partial room and board stipend, and a laptop computer for a maximum of two years to exceptional students pursuing a degree in teacher education. Recipients must make a two-year commitment to teaching in an inner-city or urban environment directly upon completion of their degree from the School of Education. Eligible students must pursue or be enrolled in a course of study leading to a career in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teaching.

The initial funding of the scholarship comes from a $500,000 contribution Rand announced during the University’s 1999 Charter Day Dinner, for which he served as corporate committee chairman. At the time of the announcement, Rand was executive vice president of customer operations for the Xerox Corporation, which made a corporate matching gift of $500,000 to the fund.

“We are extremely grateful to Mr. Rand for this substantial gift to the University’s scholarship fund,” Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert said. “Beneficiaries of the Helen Matthews Rand Endowed Scholarship Fund will include both our students who will receive financial assistance toward their education, and the students of the inner-city/urban schools where these proven classroom leaders will take their teaching talent upon completion of their degree.”

Butler and Redd Named First Rand Scholars

At a December 9 ceremony held in the University’s Blackburn Center Gallery Lounge, graduate students Dionne Butler and Keisha Redd became the first recipients of the Helen Matthews Rand Endowed Scholarship.

Butler, a native of the District of Columbia and a graduate of Vassar College and the Georgetown University Law Center, is scheduled to receive a Master of Education degree in May. After spending a few years working in the legal profession, she says she wants to combine her previous career with her commitment to teaching.

“I’d like to bring my legal and educational backgrounds together as an educational advocate,” said Butler. “It is my desire to do what I can to change the situation for students in the public school system in my hometown. As a graduate of D.C. Public Schools, I’ve witnessed the vast student potential that goes unnoticed and wasted year in and year out. I think that teachers are powerful agents for change. Things are changing in D.C. Public Schools, and I want to be there to help in whatever ways I can.”

Redd, who has wanted to be a teacher ever since she was in kindergarten, served as a teacher’s assistant in the New Haven (Conn.) Public Schools each summer during her break from undergraduate studies. Last summer, she served as a 9-11th grade mathematics teacher in the D.C. Public Schools.

“I have made a lifetime commitment to teaching and working for inner-city/urban youth,” she said. “I am a product of the inner city and I know first hand of the great need for competent and enthusiastic teachers.”

The May 2000 master’s degree candidate plans to fulfill the scholarship’s two-year teaching commitment in either Prince George’s County or D.C. public schools.

President Swygert, Rand Scholar Keisha Redd, Avis Rent A Car CEO A. Barry Rand, Rand Scholar Dionne Butler, and School of Education Dean Vinetta Jones, Ph.D., at the Helen Matthews Rand Scholarship presentation ceremony