Hiiraan Online

By Angela Palermo

 

 

BOISE, Idaho -- The College of Idaho in Caldwell has formed an endowed scholarship fund for historically underserved students with support from several prominent business leaders in the state.

The fund is named the Elgin & Elaine Baylor Opportunity Fund, after the late College of Idaho student and Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Elgin Baylor and his wife, Elaine, a former social worker and one of the first Black students to attend Newcomb College in New Orleans.

The private liberal-arts college of 1,100 students seeks to raise $25 million to provide 44 “underrepresented and under-resourced” students with full-ride scholarships. So far, over $1 million has been raised.

The first recipient is Nimo Abdi, a senior at Capital High School in Boise. Abdi, 17, came to the U.S. from Somalia as a small child and has spent the years since navigating a different language and culture. She told the Idaho Statesman that she plans to study microbiology when she attends the College of Idaho in the fall.

In her scholarship application, Abdi said the struggles of being an immigrant laid the foundation for a “grit mindset.”

“Although I was working hard behind the scenes to catch up on learning, I still felt miles behind my peers,” Abdi wrote. “To be a scholar of the Elgin & Elaine Opportunity Fund means far more than the money received. Instead, it’s an opportunity to utilize my education and experience to be a force for good in the world.”

The fund has the support of Idaho-based businesses including Micron, Blue Cross of Idaho, Albertsons, Idaho Power, St. Luke’s Health System, Saint Alphonsus Health System, Simplot, Boise Cascade, Kount, The Dignitas Agency, Cradlepoint and Crookham Co. Several companies said they support the college’s efforts to foster diversity and inclusion.

In this 1954 photograph of the College of Idaho basketball team, Elgin Baylor is pictured in the top row, third from left wearing jersey No. 15. Sarah A. Miller [email protected]

At a news conference, Elaine Baylor spoke alongside Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Blue Cross of Idaho CEO Charlene Maher, and College of Idaho Co-Presidents Doug Brigham and Jim Everett. Former Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, an alumnus of the college, was there too.

Baylor said she was grateful for the outpouring of support for the fund and hopes the the spirit of welcoming and inclusion that her husband experienced will live on through the scholarships.

Elgin Baylor became a student and basketball player at the College of Idaho in 1954, a decade before the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and traveled across the country to attend the college because it had one of the few desegregated basketball teams in the nation.

He wrote of his time at the College of Idaho that “It feels as if I have wandered into a private and exclusive members-only club, but rather than feel intimidated or excluded, I feel invited.” He played only one year at the school but still holds many of its basketball records.

“(The College of Idaho) was where he first experienced a sense of belonging and was embraced by the entire community,” Baylor said. “Our lives were profoundly influenced by the opportunities provided to us. Without those opportunities, neither of us would have had the wonderful life we had together. We want Idaho to be recognized for the welcoming state of opportunity that it is.”