In early spring SOU Foundation Board of Trustee member Ryan Wines ’01, founder and CEO of Portland-based Marmoset, established the university’s first privately-funded scholarship for students of Black, African American, or African heritage.

Black students make up less than 2% of SOU’s student population, and the fund will be used to recruit students from traditionally underserved populations. The scholarship was named in honor of the word imani, which means “faith” in Swahili. The seventh day of Kwanzaa, “imani,” is to “believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”