Fred Gilbert:
���� You're very welcome! It's a pleasure, Brook, to have you on the phone with me and to also participate in this interview this morning on behalf of the Thurgood Marshall Fund.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, we have an exciting mission. The Fund is committed to preparing a new generation of leaders by providing scholarships for academically talented students who attend one of the 45-member historically black public colleges and universities. In addition to the scholarships, we also provide capacity building and program support that will advance leadership, management, research and executive development in these schools.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Oh my, we have several! Some of the most noted ones are Howard University, of course, that you are very familiar with as well; another is Medgar Evers College, which is here in Brooklyn, New York,... York College, Norfolk State University, and there are a host of others, as you well know...

Fred Gilbert:
���� I would think that, for more than 167 years, the TMSF's 45-member colleges and universities have provided the nation with hundreds of thousands of educated young men and women. In turn, those men and women have given back to our nation and our communities by providing each with the benefits of their education. The graduates of our great institutions have already made a great benefit to society and the world in the areas of health research, business, energy conservation, law, government, and more...

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, we think so, and we know more will come as we continue to prepare leaders for the 21st century.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, as I stated, the Fund's primary focus is to prepare a new generation of leaders, and that grows out of our mission. We believe that preparing talented and gifted young people for leadership will always be an important focus of the Fund in terms of investment in our nation's future. A rich supply of new leaders continue to be made possible by the generous support of corporations, foundations, and individuals who invest in the youth who attend our 45 member institutions.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well you know, Brook, having grown up in Atlanta, Georgia, I was sort of in the backyard of a number of HBCUs - in particular, historically black private HBCUs. And while the United Negro College Fund serves that population, there are a number of Southern schools that fall under the rubric of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. While growing up in Atlanta, I experienced a sort of overwhelming emphasis placed on education and community service by my parents. Although they were not high school graduates themselves, they were extremely committed to a quality education for their 12 children. They viewed education as a something worth fighting for, and as a way of making a personal investment in one's goals and dreams; towards this end, I devoted my career to helping to making other's goals and dream a reality. By working for the Fund, it enables me to make a real difference in helping talented men and women reach their full potential at the nation's historically black public colleges and universities. It's an exciting role that I'm in here at the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, and I do believe that I'm making a difference in the lives of a new generation of leaders that's being prepared by this great institution. �

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, thank you...

Fred Gilbert:
���� Yes.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, my position as Vice President of Development for the Northeastern Region is an exciting one because it enables me to help educate 77% of the young people attending historically black colleges and universities. By developing strong relationships with major corporations, foundations, and individuals throughout the Northeast Region, I'm able to increase giving to Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, which effectively helps us to provide merit-based scholarships to students at one of our 45 member schools and capacity building and programmatic support as well.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, there are so many that I could talk about, but given the limitation of our time this afternoon, I will really speak about two in particular. In order to prepare this young generation of leaders for careers and a competitive global marketplace, Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund has recently established a national partnership with INROADS, which is an international organization (whose purpose is) to recruit the best students for pre-professional internships with business and industry. Both Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and INROADS support high potential students who maintain a 3.0 grade point average. Both organizations serve as talent acquisitions sources for their corporate partners.

I'm also very excited about a partnership we recently formed with The HBCU Network. The partnership that we formed with The HBCU Network has various initiatives to help us raise scholarship monies around the country to support merit-based scholarships at historically black public colleges. That's something that's exciting for Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund because it really does allow an already established network - like The HBCU Network - to garner support from those institutions while we continue to provide those institutions with the very things that we know are extremely important. That is monies that help students to attend college and to also stay in college, and in addition to providing institutions with capacity building monies and programmatic support that's so essential to equipping a new generation of leaders.

Fred Gilbert:
���� We've had several collaborators and sponsors over the years. In particular, I would like to lift up Bank of America Foundation, Hewlett Packard Corporation, ING Aetna Financial Services, General Motors, the Lily Endowment Organization, Ketcham Worldwide, MBNA America Bank, Merrill Lynch Financial, Philip Morris USA Companies, of course, Pfizer, Schiflin and Somerset Co.,...then just a couple of others... Coca-Cola, which is in your 'neck of the woods', Star Foundation, and Texaco Corporation. These are just a few of many that have continued to collaborate with Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and provide sponsorships for many of the special events we host to provide the merit-based scholarships support that we need and general operations monies to run the Fund itself.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, we think so, and it's something that we hope and look forward to cultivating even more of that kind of collaboration and sponsorship opportunities for the future.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Well, we hope the future of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund will continue to be bright and exciting for a number of years to come... that we will achieve, as an organization, greater recognition among corporations, foundations, and individuals around the country, showing them the value of investing in the Fund and its 45 member historically black colleges and universities.

Fred Gilbert:
���� That's an exciting question because it's one (to) which we give a great deal of thought internally here at our National Office. I would like to communicate to students and alumni of The HBCU Network family that the Fund is well positioned to sustain its leadership role in supporting students enrolled in our 45 member schools, and remain the guardian of contributions to those institutions.

Most importantly, the Fund is positioned to leverage current and future opportunities and poised to take action that will have a lasting impact on our mission. Having said this, Brook, it is imperative that we have the continued support of students and alumni of The HBCU Network family of our mission; we desperately need their ongoing support of our mission. They can become volunteers through one of the member colleges and universities; or, at the national level, they can advocate for historically black public colleges and universities. They can volunteer at the National Office, or at the workplace campaigns in their area, or volunteer for the National Dinner Committee or Golf Tournament. All of these opportunities help TMSF to achieve to continue to achieve our mission, and to provide the kind of support that is so essential to our 45 member institutions.

Fred Gilbert:
���� You're more than welcome! It's all our pleasure, actually, because the more we're able to get the word out about the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, the good work that we're doing here, and the collaborative partnerships we have formed - in particular, with The HBCU Network - we know that the sky is the limit... that we will be able to achieve, not only our goals, but always be able to address changing times and demands that are placed on organizations like ours to raise money. So we thank you, and appreciate you as well.

Fred Gilbert:
���� Yes you have - in more ways than one!

Fred Gilbert:
���� You're very welcome, Brook!

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