Donor Stories - Armond Kinsey '95

HISTORIC ONE DAY GIVE CHALLENGE GIFT:

Scholarship Endowment Supports Future Generations of Student Leaders.

Through this year’s record-breaking One Day Give fundraising event, the Millersville University community enthusiastically supported student success with gifts of all sizes. An exciting highlight of the event was celebrating the largest challenge gift in One Day Give history that was issued by Armond Kinsey ’95, with a generous gift of $105,000 to establish an endowed scholarship of the Armond S. Kinsey ’95 Scholarship

As a proud member of the Class of 1995 and a member of Millersville University’s Lambda Tau Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Kinsey has built lasting relationships and gained valuable leadership skills at Millersville University that have led to an exemplary professional career. Kinsey is the Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Atlantic Health System, and he attributes his professional success to the positive impact of his experience as a Millersville University student and as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. “Joining Kappa when I did, has had a lasting impact on my leadership
abilities. Not only becoming polemarch, which is president of the chapter, for about a year, but Kappa also helped me to understand how to work with other parts of the University and its leaders. Those experiences helped me hone my own leadership skills. Inevitably, I lean back on that in my current
role today.... Those skills carry with you, as you can imagine, throughout your career,” says Kinsey.

Producing student leaders for the future and providing financial support to students seeking to complete their degree are goals of the scholarship endowment, which has the criteria of being “awarded to an African-American rising junior with a GPA of 2.5 or greater. The recipient must have demonstrated leadership skills and commitment to community.” In creating the scholarship, Kinsey was focused on helping students facing financial needs to successfully graduate. He explains, “I specifically thought about, for some students, what the drop-out point might be.... I wanted my scholarship to be that pivot point that might help a student complete those final few years. Somebody that might be in a pinch financially and could really use the wind against their back to finish out strong. Oftentimes, we hear of people starting but not finishing for any number of reasons, and hopefully this could help one student who may be struggling with finances.”

The inspiration to create a scholarship endowment came from a number of influences in Kinsey’s life, one of those being Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and the scholarship fund that was established by the fraternity at Millersville University. “When we started the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. Lambda Tau Chapter scholarship fund, we wanted to sow into the next young person to support them with books, stipends or whatever else. That mindset of community is instilled in me and is a constant reminder to identify ways to give back.”

In the transformative impact that the scholarship endowment will make in the lives of students, Kinsey aspires to nurture student leaders. “I think the more that we can support and produce leaders, whether they are in a Greek-lettere organization or not, the better off all of our communities
are, so I really wanted to support young African-Americans at Millersville to further their education,” he says. “You never know what the ripple effects of your actions could ultimately be. My ability to give this money to help a student, and to relieve some of the stress possibly from the student’s parents so that they can worry about whatever else they have on their plate. The ripple effect of being able to do that, and whether it’s $100,000 or $100, it matters.... I inevitably know that
education is the way out and up for some people, and I don’t want finances to be the reason why people don’t succeed, so if I could have one little, small part in that for a few students, it’s meaningful to me.”

With the inclusion of Kinsey’s gracious gift of a scholarship endowment as a One Day Give challenge gift, a ripple effect of the gift was to provide an encouraging incentive for many donors from the Millersville University community to model his generosity. In response to the tremendously positive influence of his gift, he says, “I get excited – excited that I was able to do it, that I was in a position to do it, and it’s largely because of the education, the skill set, the relationships that came out of Millersville.... If it did encourage somebody, I’m completely grateful and honored that it did, and I hope that sparks other people to think about doing endowed scholarships.... I think it really opened my eyes as to what the possibilities were, and I’m hoping that this inspires somebody else to want to do the same.”

Create a scholarship endowment

Please click here for more information about creating a scholarship endowment with the Millersville University Foundation or contact the Development Office at 717-871-7520 or email giving@millersville.edu. 

This story was originally featured in the Spring 2022 edition of the Millersville University "Imagine" Magazine.