| 6/30/2009 2:45:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Victory Edward (center) was the first recipient of St. Augustine School’s new Pauline Johnson Jones Scholarship Award. The award is named for a longtime member of the parish, now deceased, who was known as “the mother of St. Augustine Church.” At left is Father Patrick Smith, pastor of St. Augustine’s. At right is Dena Grant, a member of the parish and the goddaughter of Pauline Jones.
cs photo by michael hoyt |
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Scholarship Award honors legacy of 'mother of St. Augustine Church'
MEREDITH BLACK
Catholic Standard staff
The spirit of Pauline Johnson Jones, the "mother of St. Augustine Church" in Northwest Washington, lives on through a special scholarship given to a St. Augustine School student. The first recipient of the Pauline Johnson Jones Scholarship Award was Victory Edwards, a returning eighth grader. The award was presented at a recent ceremony at St. Augustine Parish.
Pauline Jones was a longtime St. Augustine parishioner who died last year at age 99. Jones was committed to St. Augustine School and to the education of African Americans.
St. Augustine School, founded in 1858 by a group of free black Catholics, was one of several center city schools in danger of closing at the end of the 2007-2008 school year, but parishioners raised money and presented a five-year plan to keep the school open.
Under a new plan for the city's Catholic schools that was announced in 2007 and implemented the next year, St. Augustine School stayed open as a parish school. Four other Catholic schools in the District became part of the reconfigured Consortium of Catholic Academies, and seven others converted to public charter schools.
Father Patrick Smith, the pastor of St. Augustine Parish, called the scholarship "a fitting tribute to Mrs. Jones" that represents her passions for the Catholic faith and for giving African-American children equal access to a quality education.
"Pauline was always an advocate for the school, really because she was an advocate for the children," the pastor said. He noted that Jones was a product of the St. Augustine community. "Her spirit remains vibrant in the community today and that is the reason St. Augustine has remained a Catholic school," Father Smith said.
Edwards, the award recipient, said she wants to be a fiction writer and an architect when she grows up. At St. Augustine, her favorite subjects are reading and social studies, she said.
The scholarship "helps [my parents] send me to this school so I can get an education, and it helps make it a little easier in paying (the tuition)," she said.
Edwards likes drawing and music and she attends an afterschool art program. She said she also learns about the Catholic Faith at St. Augustine School.
"My teacher, she likes to teach us about Catholicism and how it can help us in our daily lives and how it can help around the world," Edwards said. About what makes St. Augustine School special, the scholarship recipient said, "It's a Catholic school and that we can learn about Christ [in a] faith-filled environment with good teachers and kind and caring students. And it's also fun."
Edwards said the scholarship "will help me by providing a good education...so I can go to high school and then to college and achieve my dreams in my life."
Edwards' mother, Curly Edwards, said she has four children in Catholic schools. A son recently was graduated from St. John's College High School, another child attends Archbishop Carroll High School, and two are at St. Augustine School.
"We're thankful for the scholarship. It will go a long way," Curly Edwards said.
Curly Edwards, who works in administration in the medical field, said her daughter is nicknamed "the A-machine" at home. She said she hopes Victory's story will inspire other children who attend Catholic schools.
She also said her family was close friends with Pauline Jones.
"Wow. What goes around really comes around," she said about her daughter winning the scholarship. Curly Edwards said she and her husband were married at St. Augustine and Victory was baptized there. "It's like coming back home," she said.
The scholarship will be given each year to a returning student in good academic standing, who demonstrates good citizenship, and tries daily to walk in the path of Christ, according to Dena Grant, a St. Augustine parishioner and the goddaughter of Pauline Jones. It is funded by contributions from Pauline Jones' family and friends.
Grant said the scholarship is "the best way to memorialize her (Pauline Jones) and keep her spirit alive."
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