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Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley ’79, who co-originated the registered Boston College trademark acronym “AHANA” (African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American) as an alternative to the term “minority” to describe persons of color, will be the featured speaker at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Banquet on Feb. 17.
One of the University’s major community events, the banquet is expected to draw several hundred people to the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons, where it will begin at 5:30 p.m. The dinner’s highlight is the awarding of the King Scholarship to a BC junior whose life and work reflects King’s philosophy.
This year’s King Scholarship candidates are Julia Biango, Elisa Bushee, Ronald Claude, Afua Maiga-Laast and Cai Thomas. A committee of faculty, staff, students and alumni evaluate applications for the scholarship, which covers three-quarters of senior-year tuition; the strongest of the preliminary candidates each submit an essay on the impact of King’s ideals on his or her life, and are interviewed by the committee.
Lewis-Mosley was among a group of BC students in the late 1970s whose members were strongly dissatisfied with the name of the University’s Minority Student Programs – specifically the use of the word “minority” which they felt carried the connotation of “less than.” She and Alfred "Alfie" Feliciano ’81 are credited with conceiving of “AHANA,” which was approved by the Board of Trustees in 1979 in establishing the Office of AHANA Student Programs.
In addition to being a unique and inclusive program title, AHANA – trademarked by BC in 1991 – provided a name, or a derivative, for student coalition models at other colleges and universities, among them the University of Wisconsin-Madison and LeMoyne College. [Read more about the origin of “AHANA” in a 2004 Chronicle story at http://bit.ly/1BZoLi2]
The director of religious education at the Church of Christ the King in Jersey City, NJ, Lewis-Mosley is a doctor of ministry candidate at Drew University Theological School. She is vice president of the recently formed Social Justice Committee of Jersey City, a faith-based initiative aimed at addressing the disparity between the urban community and law enforcement. Lewis-Mosley also serves in various capacities as a mentor to youth, evangelist, retreat leader, public speaker and spiritual director.
A graduate of BC’s School of Nursing, Lewis-Mosley formerly worked at the New York Hospital-Weill Cornell University Medical Center as senior staff clinical nurse, unit preceptor, and quality assurance committee representative, as well as administrative nurse recruiter. As an undergraduate at BC, she served as the liaison for the American Nurses Association and National Student Nurses Association, and was national chairperson for the Breakthrough to Nursing Project that recruited students of color and men into nursing. She presented testimony before the US Senate and the House of Representatives in support of the Nurse Training Act.
A recipient of the AHANA Alumni Association David Silva Award, Lewis-Mosely was cited in the University’s Women Resource Center 25th-anniversary timeline as a person influential in promoting change at BC. The BC Office of Student Involvement has established a student leadership award in her name.
She holds a master of science degree in jurisprudence with a health law specialty from Seton Hall University School of Law; a master of arts degree in spastoral ministry from Seton Hall’s Immaculate Conception Seminary-School of Theology; and a certificate in catechism from Xavier University of Louisiana-Institute for Black Catholic Studies.
For information on the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Banquet, contact Karl Bell at karl.bell@bc.edu.