By: Syd Bickers
Jordan Kinser, a Milligan College senior, has been awarded a Jessie Ball duPont Fund Fellowship, providing him a two-year position working alongside of the fund’s senior staff on grant programs at the duPont headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla.
“This is a very prestige and exclusive award for Jordan and for Milligan,” said Dr. Garland Young, vice president for academic affairs and dean.
Kinser, a 21-year-old native of Johnson County, Tenn., will graduate this spring with majors in history and sociology. His charitable work for Coalition for Kids, an afterschool tutoring program for local underprivileged children, and the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Johnson City, Tenn., made him stand out in the application process, according to Young. Young and Sue Skidmore, Milligan registrar and associate dean, collaborated to nominate Kinser. DuPont requires chief academic officers of schools to nominate applicants.
“In the call for nominations, they asked for students who had demonstrated interest in social problems specifically related to southern poverty,” said Young. “Jordan fit that like a glove…In a couple of different ways, Jordan has distinguished himself by becoming involved in social service projects that are geared to the needs of Appalachia and its residences.”
Kinser was one of two applicants who received the fellowship for 2013-2015. Twenty-one students applied. The fund accepts up to one applicant from each of the 37 private liberal arts colleges that it supports. These schools include Milligan College, Auburn University, Wake Forest University, Georgetown University, Yale University and others.
The two-year fellowship program includes a fulltime, paid position working on fund projects and grant programs, but Kinser is not completely sure of what his position will be. He said he believes he will be “modifying small grants programs” through research. DuPont spokesperson Mary Kress Littlepage, said fellows’ work depends upon the individual’s interests and expertise and the fund’s needs.
Kinser hopes to continue to work in social service after his stint with duPont. He said the fellowship will give him a better understanding of the monetary aspects of the field, but he hopes to also work in a more hands-on position in the future.
“It’s a great place to get my foot in the door,” said Kinser. “It will prepare me for future plans to have a more direct impact on the marginalized in society.”
Helping the marginalized is a principle that Jessie Dew Ball follows, the wealthy Floridian educator and philanthropist who the fund is named after. Ball died in 1970 and left her estate as a religious, charitable and education fund that grew into the duPont Fund. The foundation not only supports small liberal arts schools today but also larger institutions such as the University of Notre Dame and The Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., according to the fund’s website.
Young expects to see Kinser making great strides in his profession, as Ball did.
“Jordan Kinser is the kind of person that we are going to hear from in future years in the social service sector of the nonprofit world,” said Young.
Milligan received a “Pathways to Success” grant from duPont that is used to fund a program designed to smooth the transition of transferring community college students. The grant is used to fund advertisements in community colleges and tutoring programs. Milligan receives a number of other grants from duPont as well.
milliganstampede
