Observation by Maleta McPherson, Store Manager Glendale Community College Bookstore
(February 2016)

It was at Bethune-Cookman College, now a University (BCU) that I learned whose shoulders it was that I was standing on and what my purpose in life was to be. Mary McLeod Bethune started Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls with $1.50, five little black girls and her faith in God. The all girls school later merged with an all boys school, Cookman Institute and then grew into BCU. With a motto of “Enter to Learn and Depart to Serve,” Over the last 100 years, BCU has graduated over 16,000 students in various degrees.

In her last will and testament, Mother Mary, as we called her left the following legacy: I LEAVE YOU LOVE; I LEAVE YOU THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE IN ONE ANOTHER; I LEAVE YOU A THIRST FOR EDUCATION; I LEAVE YOU RESPECT FOR THE USES OF POWER; I LEAVE YOU FAITH; I LEAVE YOU RACIAL DIGNITY; I LEAVE YOU A DESIRE TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY WITH YOUR FELLOW MEN, and lastly, I LEAVE YOU FINALLY A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.

Over the years, Dr. Bethune counseled many presidents and became dear friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. A servant leader who purposed her life’ work around faith and prayer she was noted as saying, “Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” Mother Mary was the type of leader that when she saw a need, she created a solution. She knew then, that “education was the prime need of the hour.” This still reigns true today. I am humbled and honored to be a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and living legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune.