DETROIT (WXYZ) — Students took center stage at a Black History Month event that has become a tradition over the last 20 years.
They took part in a high-stakes competition for college scholarships hosted by Detroit Pistons legend Rick Mahorn and the Detroit Pistons Foundation at the Detroit Institute of Arts Tuesday.
“I was extremely nervous about going first,” said Mekhia Knighten, a senior at University Prep Academy.
She wrote a poem inspired by her family background.
Watch full poem from Mekhia Knighten of Senior University Prep Academy
“I really wanted to think about the people who came before me. I thought about my grandparents and everything before, like everything they had to sacrifice and everything they had to go through, like my grandmother was born at a different time where she had to use a different water fountain,” said Knighten.
Her power and delivery earned her the grand prize Earl Lloyd Award, a $25,000 scholarship to pursue her dream of opening her own radiology clinic to help people battling cancer.
“I feel like this is just another step forward because college is so expensive," she says. "Especially if you’re going for an extended amount of years. I have to go to get a master’s and everything, and it really alleviates that stress of having to try to find out how I’m going to fund my college education,”
For Isyss Christerfield, the poster competition was a chance to tap into a lane she already loved - the intersection of art and Black culture.
“I wanted to represent legacy in action through Black people’s connection with hair and with activism. So, I drew Black people surrounded with a tree, and the roots of the tree were maps Black people used to escape slavery,” described Christerfield.
It earned her the Earl Cureton Award, a $20,000 scholarship to pursue her passion.
“I’m going to use this money to, of course, pay for college because the two colleges I want to go to, either Kendall or the College for Creative Studies, are expensive because they’re art colleges, and I would need to buy a lot of art supplies,” said Christerfield.
The theme this year- Legacy in Action: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future.
Over the past twenty years, the event has given away a million dollars in scholarship money to one hundred students.
“The Pistons are a community organization, and as much as we care and are focused on what we do on the court. We know our current exists in Detroit, and our fans are here with us too and, so it’s so important to lean into the history of those who created this program twenty years ago, those who continue to fund it and set up these young people for the future,” said Melanie Harris, President of Business Operations for the Pistons.
Harris says it’s a priority and she was inspired by the students.
“I hope that they continue to let their lights shine bright, continue to keep their eyes looking up and forward toward the future, and everyone should feel confident in the future of Detroit with all of these children lifting us up,” said Harris.
