Paul Quinn College has just received its largest gift in its 152-year history. An anonymous donor recently gave the Dallas college a $20 million donation. Paul Quinn is one of several HBCUs to receive anonymous donations this year.
When it comes to American higher education, Paul Quinn College is in a lane all on its own. It’s the only minority-serving organization approved as a federal work college, providing a program that blends occupational experience with academic study.
“The impact of this gift on our institution and our students, staff, faculty, and alumni cannot be overstated. This moment belongs to every Quinnite who toiled in the vineyard, hoping and praying that a moment like this one would come,” Dr. Michael J. Sorrell, president of the college, said in a statement.
This generous donation will open up new opportunities for success for students at Paul Quinn. The money will be utilized by the college to launch new academic initiatives, especially in traditionally underrepresented disciplines like banking and finance, where students of color are underrepresented. It also intends to grow the initiative “Every Quinnite is an Entrepreneur.”
A large amount of the donation will go towards the college’s endowment as well as increasing scholarship opportunities for students. Increased scholarship opportunities will positively impact the primary concerns of many students.
“We’ll put a substantial amount in our endowment and invest in scholarships,” Sorrell said, “because students shouldn’t spend the rest of their lives paying off student loans.”
Paul Quinn College was founded in 1872 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church to educate freed slaves and their children. The college originally began in Austin, Texas, as the Connectional School for the Education of Negro Youth. Paul Quinn is a private, faith-based, liberal arts-inspired college. It later relocated to Waco, Texas, as Waco College in 1877, and in 1880 became Paul Quinn College. Paul Quinn has been located in Dallas for 34 years.
Under the institutional motto “WE over ME,” Paul Quinn enthusiastically educates students from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Paul Quinn’s creative approaches to education, such as the urban work college model, have brought the college prominence in recent years.
Being an urban work college, Quinn offers stipends for a 15-hour internship each week to all residential Quinnites, thereby reducing their reliance on student debt. These tasks give students the chance to obtain practical work experience, which may improve their chances of finding better jobs after graduation. This gift will continue to aid Paul Quinn in confidently completing the college’s mission.
“This moment belongs to all of us—to those who toiled in scarcity and obscurity on campus, dreaming that a day like this would come to those who advocated for us in rooms where we were not in attendance,” Sorrell said. “This incredible gift will be used to move our institution forward in ways that heretofore we could have only dreamed of.”