Proctor Creates Fund

Derrick D. Cephas '75, a third-year law student and a freshman proctor, plans to establish a scholarship fund to enable poor high school students from Maryland to participate in summer education programs.

The Eastern Shore Education Fund will permit eighth through 11th grade students from Maryland's Eastern Shore region to attend summer sessions at a prep school or to enroll in fine arts programs at various institutions.

The Eastern Shore region is a poor, rural area where most scholarship programs are unheard of," Cephas, a native of the area, said yesterday. "There is a tremendous untapped human resource down there, which is why I am convinced it will work," he added.

A 1971 graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy, Cephas taught history at the Choate-Rosemary Hall School in 1975. "Prep schools can turn a bright, energetic kid around and send him flying in the direction of further education and achievement," he said.

Funding for summer programs at prep schools is very restricted and government programs do not provide grants. "A charitable, tax-exempt institution can reach many students on a permanent basis," he said.

James L. Bunnell, director of the Summer Session at Phillips Academy, Andover, said all financial aid comes from the Summer Session's budget and is awarded on the basis of need.

Cephas said one of his goals will be to ensure his scholarship will be added to, not deducted from, a student's current financial aid. "Very often, the financial aid offered is not enough, so the fund will provide a source of extra money that is now unavailable," he said.

Cephas said he has pledges from "several wealthy individuals" who will donate once the fund is tax-exempt next summer, and that he hopes to get grants from several major foundations. On April 21 he will hold a fund-raising party "aimed primarily at the Harvard community," he said