At Washington Adventist University's 13th Annual Visionaries Gala, Steven Francis, a three-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star and Takoma Park native, unveiled the Steven Francis Scholarship Fund. The fund will award five US$5,000 scholarships to students pursuing higher education.
Francis said the scholarship honors his late mother and will open doors for students across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Before Francis became "Stevie Franchise," he was a kid growing up behind Columbia Union College. He participated in church league games at Metro Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“Growing up in Takoma Park, you had your heroes: the people you saw working in the community as police officers and firefighters,” Francis said. “But very seldom did we have athletes who came from where I came from.”
The campus gym became his proving ground.
“There was always a place we could go play basketball, and that was at Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University,” he said.
Ahead of the 1999 NBA Draft, as scouts and general managers came to the Washington, D.C. area to evaluate him, Francis held his pre-draft workouts on the campus where he grew up.
“When I had my private workouts before the NBA, I felt compelled to have the teams interested in me come see this little town in Takoma Park,” he said.
The fund's deeper roots trace back to loss. At 18, as he prepared to leave home for junior college, Francis lost his mother to cancer.
He has spoken candidly about how that loss forced him to grow up fast, carry his family forward, and fight for opportunities largely on his own. Francis has said his mother was his first believer. She made higher education and a better life feel possible long before he played college basketball.
Francis said the scholarship fund is his way of making sure other young people from Takoma Park don’t have to make that fight alone.
The fund is rooted in Takoma Park but not limited to residents of Montgomery County. Students across Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and beyond may apply for the Steven Francis Scholarship Fund.
Francis stressed that the fund is meant for a wide range of students. “It’s not just for sports, and it’s not just for males. This school has a lot to give,” he said.
Cheryl Harris Kisunzu, Washington Adventist University’s interim president, said, “Langston Hughes challenges us with the following enduring question: ‘What happens to a dream deferred?’ If he knew Steve Francis, I suggest to you that he would never have written that poem."
“Steve Francis, legendary basketball player, citizen of Takoma Park, friend of Washington Adventist University, is committed to ensuring that dreams are not deferred,” she said.
Kisunzu said recipients “will learn and will celebrate the enduring reality that not only are they champions on the court, but they are champions in life.”
“For this empowering commitment, we will forever say thank you to Steve on behalf of the students and constituents entrusted to our care here at Washington Adventist University, as we create competent moral leaders for such a time as this,” Kisunzu said.
For Francis, the launch is a first step. “I want to say thank you to the University for recognizing me for this,” he said. “This is only the beginning.”
The original article was published on the Washington Adventist University news site.
