When Maikieta Brantley, 23, enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s prestigious School of Journalism, she had dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist.
“Mizzou is number one for journalism,” Brantley said in a phone interview. “I knew that this was where I wanted to go.”
She turned down two full-ride scholarships to attend Hampton University and Howard University, two HBCUs or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. To finance her education, she applied for the University of Missouri Columbia Donald M. Suggs Scholarship. In 2009, the then-senior at Rosati Kain High School was named a scholarship recipient.
“I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to receive higher education,” she wrote in 2009 for The St. Louis American. “I am blessed to have been awarded with such a lucrative scholarship.”
The University of Missouri Columbia Donald M. Suggs Scholarship is a four-year, $57,000 scholarship—the university provides $46,000 of the scholarship funds and the St. Louis American Foundation provides $11,000. It was the first of what has grown to become eight scholarships at Missouri schools named after the St. Louis American publisher and president of the St. Louis American Foundation.
Each year, the proceeds from the St. Louis American Foundation’s four Salute to Excellence events fund scholarships for minority students. This year, the foundation, together with its educational partners, will foster over $370,000 in scholarships for local minority students and community grants, as well as laptop computers for elementary schools and scholarship recipients.
“Our Suggs Scholars have been a great addition on our campus,” said DeAngela Burns-Wallace, assistant vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Suggs Scholars are typically “progressive young people” with a passion for education, Burns-Wallace said.
At Mizzou, Brantley immersed herself in the college experience by joining several on-campus organizations. She became a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the National Pan-hellenic Council, and the Mortar Board, a national honor society for college seniors. She also became involved with the nonprofit Dream Outside the Box, and joined the National Association of Black Journalists. Brantley comes from a community service-oriented family, she said.
She switched her major to accounting during her sophomore year at Mizzou and signed up for an accelerated dual-degree program.
“I don’t think I had the same passion that a lot of my classmates had in those preliminary journalism classes,” she said.
Her parents had a significant influence on her decision. Both of her parents are accountants and it’s a field Brantley always excelled in, she said. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s in accounting in five years. She was fortunate to have received an accounting scholarship and took out a small loan to fund her final year of studies, she said.
In May, Brantley earned a Masters of Accountancy degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia’s College of Business. Her future career will be more “law-based,” she said, and will incorporate her love of language and international travel. She is fluent in Spanish and French and traveled to Ecuador during high school.
“I know that the only way to grasp the language is to be dropped off where people only speak that language,” she said.
In her sophomore and junior year at Mizzou, she traveled to Costa Rica. The Suggs Scholarship allows an additional allowance of up to $7,000 for study abroad expenses. “I had never been to Central America,” she said. “It sounded exciting and fresh.”
This fall, she will continue her studies at Mizzou, this time at the university’s School of Law. Again, she follows in her mother’s footsteps. Her mother initially wanted to pursue a law degree, she said.
“I told myself that I would eventually go to law school to finish what she started,” she said of her mother.
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil. E-mail this reporter: boneil@stlamerican.com.
