SCHOLARSHIP [schol·ar·ship /ˈskälərˌSHip/] – Demonstrating an attitude toward education, learning and being informed by achieving or exceeding and maintaining the minimum educational requirements of the fraternity.
2024 BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES YOUNG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
(NOTE: Colonel (Brother) Charles Young, the highest ranking African-American soldier at the time of his death on January 8, 1922 was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by the Headquarters Department of the Army on January 19, 2022)
Scholarship relates to how one thinks about their reality, social or natural worlds, will be informed by their understandings of the nature of the things that occupy it. Whether the occupants are living or inanimate, the involvement of the insights of research will be action-guiding and informative. The results of scholarship should lead to improved action and revised practices. Toward this end, the fraternity is steadfast in its encouragement of its members to pursue high standards of academic success in college as well as attendant graduate and professional studies as means of demonstrating sustained allegiance to our first cardinal principle, Manhood.
Lambda Gamma Gamma Chapter hosts several scholarship centric activities throughout the year in support of high school seniors, college undergraduates, and individuals seeking continuing education. We host our annual Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship essay writing contest in which high schools seniors participate by responding to an essay in typed or written format with contexts between 750-1000 words on a given subject or topic. The essays are then scored and winners are announced during our annual QBQ Patron Cookout event in August. Monetary awards are given which totals $35,000-$50,000 annually. Our non-profit organization (501 c3), the Lambda Gamma Gamma (“LGG”) UPLIFT Foundation supports and assists in this program. Additionally, students who maintain grade point averages as outlined in the rules are also considered and given scholarship during their undergraduate degree pursuits. We also provide monetary scholarships to individuals who are in continuing education programs.
2024 Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship for High School Students
The 2024 Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship (formerly the Colonel Charles Young High School Scholarship) High School Scholarship program is now available for the 2023-2024 academic school year. High school seniors in the MD/DC/VA regional area can now apply online for the BGCYMS scholarship. Winning recipients of the scholarship will be notified before July 31, 2024. NOTE: Scholarship application deadline is March 27, 2024. *** APPLICATION IS CLOSED. DEADLINE WAS MARCH 27, 2024 ***
Applicants can click the link below to begin the application process. *** NOTE: Only fully completed applications will be accepted ***
Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship Application (High School) (Application is now closed. Deadline was March 27, 2024)
2024 Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship Continuing Education (CE)
Applications for the Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship for the 2023-2024 academic year are now being accepted for the Lambda Gamma Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Continuing Education (“CE”) Scholarship Program. Applicants must have previously received the Brigadier General/Colonel Charles Young Memorial High School level scholarship to be eligible for the Continuing Education (CE) Scholarship.
Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Scholarship Application (Continuing Education – CE) (Deadline for Application Submission is May 3, 2024)
ABOUT BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES YOUNG
Omega Psi Phi is proud to acknowledge and recognize Brother (Brigadier General) Charles Young. His outstanding military leadership, tenacity of purpose and perseverance have made him a figure to be immortalized in Omega history. Brother Young’s demonstrated leadership abilities and mental toughness is certainly a hallmark of success for all to follow and in recognition of his dedicated service, Omega has named an International Award for active duty military excellence in his honor. This award is given at the fraternity’s Conclave, conducted every two years.
Brigadier General Charles Young is remembered and honored as a man of unique courage and inspiration. This was especially true for those of “goodwill”, who knew him, and for those who followed him into battle. He stands honored both as an African-American and in the history of African-Americans in the U.S. military.
Genral Young was born March 12, 1864 to Gabriel Young and Arminta Bruen in Helena, KY. Gabriel and his family lived in a small log house on Helena Station Road previously used as slave quarters. The house lay near the small town of May’s Lick in southern Mason County, Kentucky.
He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1889. This gave him the honor of being the third African-American to do so, and the first to lead a full career in the us Army. It was 47 years before the US Military Academy at West Point graduated another African American.
His first assignment after graduation was with the Buffalo Soldiers in the 10th Cavalry in Nebraska, and then in the 9th and 10th Cavalries in Utah. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he was reassigned as Second Lieutenant to training duty at Camp Algers, Virginia.
Young was then awarded a commission as a Major in the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Later, during the Spanish-American War, he was in command of a squadron of the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers in Cuba.
After the war with Spain, Young was reassigned to Fort Duchesne in Utah where he successfully arbitrated a dispute between Native Americans and sheep herders. He also met one of the many soldiers who would eventually benefit from his encouragement, Sergeant Major Benjamin O. Davis. Later, Davis would became General Benjamin O. Davis, the first African-American to reach the rank of General in the U.S. army.
Charles Young distinguished himself throughout his military career with the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalries, and the 25th Infantry. He also served as Professor of Military Science at Wilberforce University, Ohio.
In 1903, Captain Young was in command of the 10th Cavalry, who were segregated at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was assigned “Acting Superintendent” of Sequoia National Parks in California for the summer. The management of the park was the responsibility of the army, which had very little Congressional funding. This problem and the fact that no “Acting Superintendent” of Sequoia National Parks ever stayed at this assignment for more than two consecutive summers resulted in the construction of less than five miles of roads within the park. The lack of a wagon road severely limited the number for people who visited the Giant Forest of Redwoods, which are the largest trees in the world.
Young and his troopers arrived in Sequoia after a 16-day ride. Their first priority was the extension of the wagon road. As always, Young’s aggressive style of leadership, produced results. A road longer than all previous roads combined was produced, ending at the base of Moro Rock. This opened up the park to the public who was clamoring to experience Sequoia National Parks. Soon wagons and automobiles were winding their way to the mountain-top forest for the first time.
Young was sent to the Philippines to join his 9th regiment and command a squadron of two troops in 1908. Four years later he was once again selected for Military Attaché duty, this time to Liberia. For his service as adviser to the Liberian Government and his supervision of the building of the country’s infrastructure, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal, an award that annually recognized the African-American who had made the highest achievement during the year in any field of honorable human endeavor.
During the 1916 Pershing’s Punitive Expedition into Mexico, Young was praised for his leadership in the pursuit of the bandit Pancho Villa, who had murdered American citizens. Commanding a squadron of the 10th United States Cavalry, he led a cavalry pistol charge against the Villista forces, routing the opposing forces without losing a single man. The swift action saved the wounded General Beltran and his men, who had been outflanked.
With the creation of the army’s Military Information Division (MID), came his assignment as one of the army’s first military attachés, in Port Au Prince, Haiti. His job was to observe the training and exercises of foreign armies and make reports on their relative strengths and weaknesses. United States intelligence was desperate for new maps and information about groups struggling for political power in Haiti. Young risked his life to fulfill his assignments, only to have his maps and reports stolen and sold to the Haitian government.
On a day in June, 1918 retired Lt. Colonel Charles Young, made his way on horseback, 500 miles from Wilberforce, Ohio to this nation’s capital, to show he was as always, fit for duty. There, he petitioned the Secretary of War (now called Secretary of Defense) for immediate reinstatement and command of a combat unit in Europe.
The ride from Ohio to Washington D.C. brought bittersweet results. Young was reinstated and promoted to full Colonel, but he was assigned to duty at Camp Grant, Illinois. By the time his reinstatement and promotion were in effect the war was near its end.
Too weak to command in France they said, but not too weak to traverse and suffer the swamps of West Africa, Colonel Charles Young, was once again, assigned to Liberia as Military Attaché. He died at that post on January 8, 1922, while on a research expedition in Lagos, Nigeria.
Colonel Charles Young’s funeral service was one of the few ever held at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. He is buried in Section 3 of the cemetery.
Today, Colonel Charles Young’s home is scheduled to become the future site of the National Museum of African American Military History. Its unique history relives the days when it was a way station for the Underground Railroad.
Colonel Young was made an honorary member of the Omega Psi Phi in the early years of the fraternity’s history. To commemorate his military and leadership achievements, the fraternity has established an International Award named in his honor. Recipients of this award are recognized for their outstanding leadership skills as demonstrated in their active duty military service to our great nation.
By Stanford L. Davis
(NOTE: We Thank The BuffaloSoldier.Net for providing this information to the public.)