Only a few decades ago, according to Dr. Ruth Simmons, president of Smith College, looking out for African American youth was a challenge more readily accepted by the African American community, at large - and particularly by African American teachers.

Dr. Vernell Lillie, who taught Simmons when she attended Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas, is such an educator.

"When [teachers like Lillie] saw someone who needed a hand, they did not question that," Simmons says. "If that meant that they didn't have a place to live, they took them in; [if it meant] food to eat, they gave food; or no money, they gave them money. Or if their mother had died, they took them on. That's very much the kind of spirit that existed in those days. And to me what she did symbolizes that era."

To recognize the legacy of such teachers - many of whom often don't realize how much what they did meant to the people they helped - and to encourage the continuation of that spirit, Simmons has set up an endowed scholarship to honor Lillie at Dillard University, the undergraduate alma mater of both.

"We have relied in our time on federal forms of assistance and I believe it is our responsibility to create additional scholarships for young people coming along," Simmons says. "I also wanted to do something to emphasize the importance of HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities)."

The Vernell A. Lillie Endowed Scholarship was funded by Simmons with an initial $11,000 gift.

Honored and Grateful

Dr. Lillie, now a professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, is reluctant to take credit for the unselfishness, dedication and inspiration she has given her students.

"My grandma taught me that once you begin to point out the gifts that you give, that nullifies the gift," Lillie says. "It kind of surprised me to have been singled out in this way and sometimes makes me a little uncomfortable And I get teary-eyed."

The bond between Lillie and Simmons goes far beyond that of the traditional student-pupil relationship. Simmons, the youngest of twelve children, found a surrogate mother in Lillie after she lost her natural mother.