“You can understand the loneliness,” he says, “but they were able to blaze the path for us. By their success, they were able to show us what could be done.”
Lewis, a retired school administrator who now runs an education consulting service in the Champaign area, expresses appreciation for the education that she received at U of I.
“The legacy of Project 500 basically showed that the university embraced diversity,” Lewis says. “It afforded disadvantaged students the opportunity to attend a world-class university and become major contributors to society and the global community.”
Still, Moffitt says she would like for those administrators who toiled behind the scenes prior to Project 500 to get more recognition.
“Someone had to be in the system to fight for Project 500 — it just didn’t happen magically,” she says. “Those are the shoulders we stand on. Project 500 is more like the middle of the book rather than the first chapter.”
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