Miss Dillard, Morjoriee White, led with a vision and reigned with a purpose this year by promoting community service and service learning.White’s family, friends and Dillard’s faculty encouraged her to run for Miss Dillard. ” It never was part of my plan to run for Miss Dillard. My family and friends had faith in me,” said White.
White is a senior public health and health systems major from San Antonio, Texas. White has achieved academic success by being on the Dean’s List since her freshmen year. She has been in many community and service organizations such as Top Teens of America, United Methodist Youth Fellowship, Jack and Jill of America, Xinos Youth Group and the NAACP Youth Council.
White’s original platform was to reign with a purpose, and lead with a vision to promote community service, service learning and improve students mental and spiritual growth.Some students think that White differs from the previous Miss Dillard’s in many ways.
“Morjoriee has a more quiet and humble spirit. She is more unique than the previous Miss Dillard’s because she gets the job done without being noticed,” said Shevonne Trice, a junior social work major.Many students thought that White fulfilled her responsibility of being Miss Dillard. “She is unique, humble, and everything a queen should be. She fulfilled her responsibility by raising community service activities and supporting different organizations,” said Geneva Mitchell, a sophomore accounting major.
White accomplished her goals as Miss Dillard by spearheading community service activities to help unfortunate people. On Sept.11th she held a walk-a-thon and students were wearing red, white and blue to represent the victims that were lost in the incident. In October, she held a Gentleman’s pageant to raise money for breast cancer patients. Everyone had fun during the activity by wearing pink and promoting health at the same time. During her reign, White held a clothing drive for Hurricane Isidore, and raised 100 toys for Toys-for-Tots to give to unfortunate children in New Orleans.
She also participated in the New Orleans school rally to renovate Booker T. Washington and John F. Kennedy High School to paint the schools. Just recently, she participated in the “Celebration of Women” by reflecting on struggles, accomplishments, strengths and visions of women both past and present.
Many students thought that the activity in which White showed the most leadership was a seminar for freshmen called “Diary of a Dillard” student. The seminar was inspirational because the speakers spoke to the freshmen about the transition from high school to college. The seminar talked about issues that included homosexuality, pregnancy, being academically active and the transition from high school to college.
“The Diary of a Dillard Student seminar was a major contribution for our school. The seminar showed that Morjoriee was real nice and unique by helping freshmen matriculate at Dillard,” said Aquea Wynn, a junior psychology major. Although White has fulfilled all her responsibilities as Miss Dillard, she will continue to give back toDillard and the New Orleans community by creating her own scholarship and planning a sister-to-sister talk later this month.
The scholarship is her largest accomplishment. White’s scholarship is called the Morjoriee Ma’teese-La Jacquelyn White scholarship. A student must have at least a 2.75 g.p.a., 60 community service hours and must be in financial need. The scholarship is worth $1,000. White plans on going to a few New Orleans high schools to talk to high school senior females about leadership and education for the sister-to-sister talk.White congratulated Kristy Malbrew when she won Miss Dillard by lending her some positive advice.”Follow your heart, and continue to be sweet and christ-centered,” said White.
After graduation, White plans on attending graduate school at Emory University to pursue her masters of public health and later she will attend medical school.Jack and Jill of America, Xinos Youth Group and the NAACP Youth Council.Jack and Jill of America, Xinos Youth Group and the NAACP Youth Council.
