Lydia Grate of Russellville has been named the recipient of the Little Rock Nine Foundation scholarship at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
The scholarship recognizes the Little Rock Nine's appreciation of President Bill Clinton and public service work by Clinton School students. The Little Rock Nine is the name given to a group of black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment became a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
As a first-year student at the Clinton School, Grate was part of a team that spent the academic year researching the impact of the Thea Foundation's Art Closet program in the Little Rock and North Little Rock school districts.
The Art Closet is an initiative that provides funding for art supplies and creative materials to underfunded Arkansas public schools. Its aim is to make the arts accessible for students in high-poverty areas and classrooms with little-to-no budget.
Grate was one of 39 women selected nationally in June to be part of the 2020 B.A. EmpowHER group, a program created by the B.A. Women's Alliance to inspire women to make a change in the world.
She has been in the Peace Corps and completed summer internships with two organizations -- Little Rock's Heifer International, which does work in 21 countries to strengthen local economies and build secure livelihoods to farmers, and Santa Ana, Calif.'s Global G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World), which mentors women to advocate for themselves and make their communities stronger.
Grate is a graduate of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, with degrees in broadcast journalism, public relations and speech communications.