Forward Focus
Demarcus Williams ’03 creates scholarship to honor professor who kept him on track.
Sometimes we all need a little tough love.
Demarcus Williams ’03 freely concedes that when he was an undergraduate in the College of Design, he was enjoying himself a little too much. Instead of spending time in the studio, focusing on his craft of graphic design, he says, “I was trying to make studio fit into my social life.”
Williams got what he needed — what he calls a “rude awakening” — from Kermit Bailey ’87 MR, associate professor of graphic and experience design. “He took me aside and told me to stay focused,” Williams says. “My senior year I bought in, spent more time in studio and embraced the experience.” Today Williams is associate vice president for global marketing and communications at Saint Augustine’s University, and he’s established a need-based scholarship in Bailey’s name for students majoring in graphic design.
Bailey was the only Black professor in Williams’ major, graphic design, and Williams says that was important. “Seeing him was very inspirational to me,” Williams says.
The scholarship is nonendowed, which means the money will be immediately available for a qualified student. Endowed scholarships usually require a donor to pledge at least $50,000 over several years. An Immediate Impact Scholarship, such as the one Williams set up, can be established with a $10,000 donation pledged over four or five years, providing a more affordable pathway for donors to create scholarships.
Bailey has been teaching at NC State since 1990. “You get a glow when they graduate,” he says of design students, but to see them succeed at a high level and come back to help other students is at another level. “It’s a lot of gratitude,” he says.
“There were moments, I am sure, when he thought I was too tough on him. Or I thought I was being too hard,” Bailey says. In the end, it’s the small moments with students that can make a difference. “In some of those moments I was able to keep it real for him,” Bailey says. “I feel so good that Demarcus made this commitment to NC State.”
Photograph courtesy of Demarcus Williams
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