CSB student named Phillips Scholar

08/08/2007

Joal Reeves, who will be a junior at the College of Saint Benedict this fall, has been named a 2007-09 Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Scholarship recipient.           

Reeves was one of six students selected from 16 eligible Minnesota private colleges and universities who are eligible to receive $14,000: a $5,000 junior-year scholarship, a $4,000 summer award to support the development and implementation of a self-designed service project to address unmet needs in Minnesota communities; and a $5,000 senior-year scholarship contingent on the successful completion of the summer project.           

Reeves’ proposed project is called the South Side Renaissance Project. The project hits close to home for the Minneapolis native (Roosevelt High School), who is a peace studies major with a focus on gang violence.           

“My project was created in hopes of addressing a problem very close to me that has affected me, my family and the neighborhoods I have lived in,” Reeves said. “Growing up, I saw the harsh reality of street gangs, and over time, I decided that I had to do something about the problem if there was ever to be a solution.”           

The South Side Renaissance Project will be based in south Minneapolis within two prominent gang neighborhoods, Reeves said.           

“The aim of the project is to give young people the motivation and the tools to express themselves, discuss the problems in their neighborhoods and to believe they are capable of changing them,” Reeves said. “After undergraduate studies (at CSB), I plan on furthering this project and creating a non-profit program in south Minneapolis.”           

Reeves, who is the vice president of the CSB Student Senate, is scheduled to give an address at the CSB All-College Convocation Aug. 29 at Petters Auditorium, Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict.           

“My speech will be entitled ‘Finding Your Home Away From Home.’ I will talk about the differences in my ‘hometown’ and my ‘home now’ and how I learned to love them both,” Reeves said.

Reeves is also a fellow in the I-LEAD (Intercultural Leadership, Education and Development) Program at CSB. Started in 2005, the program aims to attract, retain and support students currently underrepresented (culturally, geographically, first generation, racial and socio-economically) on campus.          

Jay Phillips was a peddler’s son who came to the United States when he was 2½ years old. As a child, he sold newspapers, and he would use part of his earnings to buy bread for the poor he saw on the streets. Phillips went on to become a prominent Minnesota businessman and community leader.           

The Phillips Scholarships encourage and enable the continuation of Jay and Rose Phillips’ commitments to helping people become self-sufficient. The Minnesota Private College Fund, which administers the scholarships, partners with foundations and businesses to raise money for student scholarships and general operating support on behalf of member private colleges and universities.

Reeves is the first CSB student to be a Phillips Scholar since 2000-02, when Jessica Manthie worked with women and youth at the Dorothy Day Center, St. Paul.