Louisiana Black Advocates for Life, which seeks to encourage the meaningful participation of members of the Black community in the process of building and maintaining a culture of life in Louisiana, recently awarded two $4,000 scholarships to students at Opelousas Catholic High School.

Dr. Kathy Allen, State Director for Louisiana Black Advocates for Life, made the presentations of the St. Landry Emerging Leaders Scholarship Program in May during a mass at Holy Ghost Catholic Church. The recipients of the inaugural scholarships are McKenzie Chevis, an 11th-grader, and Brailey Major, a senior. They were also recognized for their spirit, academics and leadership skills.

The St. Landry Emerging Leaders Scholarship Program was designed to create an opportunity for Black students to access a quality, Christian-focused education that will lead to the development of school and community leaders, pro-life advocates for the born and unborn, and social justice influencers and leaders.

Scholarships of up to $4,000 per year per student are funded for use toward tuition or other directly related expenses to matriculation at Opelousas Catholic High School or the Schools of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau. The goal of the program is to eventually have an emerging leader at each level of high school – freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.

The scholarship program has been instituted in St. Landry Parish in association with Holy Ghost Catholic Church, one of the largest African-American Catholic congregations in the United States. Black Advocates for Life would like to expand the program in the future to other parts of the state.

“We have lost several generations of Black life to abortion since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973,” said Dr. Allen. “Sadly, the yearly loss of Black unborn life in Louisiana has steadily increased from 60% in 2014 to 65% in 2020. In the midst of this tragic reality, the Black Advocates Emerging Leaders scholarship program provides an avenue for talented young people to become a powerful generation of pro-life advocates who can influence change in the communities they know best.”

For more information on this program, visit our website www.lablackadvocates.com/emergingleaders, or contact Dr. Kathy Allen at 337-524-0044 or kathy@lablackadvocates.com.