By Cortez Franklin Staff Writer
For the last 10 years, the Detroit Pistons have sponsored a Black History Month event. As a part of that event, the Pistons give away scholarships to four Detroit area seniors.
This year the grand prize scholarship worth $10,000 went to Loyola High School senior Jakobi Lundy-Bass.
“Although I have not made the final decision on what college I will attend, it [the money] will be used to pay for school,” Lundy-Bass said.
Lundy-Bass competed against students from Carman-Ainsworth High School and Cornerstone Schools in Flint, and Detroit School of Arts, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Northwestern High School, University Prep Science and Math High School and University Prep Academy in Detroit.
Each year students have had to create and present an original speech, poem, dance, or rap performance based on a theme. This year’s theme was 50 years later: How the Civil Rights movement has changed the landscape of America over the past 50 years.
Lundy-Bass, who writes for FreepHigh’s Bulldog News, decided to do a speech. In his speech, he talked about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Detroit riots, Father Cunningham and the start of Focus Hope, the Larry King beating and the election of Barack Obama.
Said Lundy-Bass: “I wasn’t nervous. I was stressed.”
Lundy-Bass had to cut his presentation three times to fit within the two-minute limit.
Although a Loyola senior has won a scholarship each time he has entered the competition, this is the first time the school has had a grand-prize winner.
