Katie Murray
August 30, 2013 This month, the Office of Institutional Advancement announced the establishment of the Henry N. and Alice Carson Tisdale Endowed Fun. Alice Tisdale, ’73, is the current director of the Alice Carson Tisdale Honors College and First Lady of Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC. Tisdale has spent nearly 40 years in education the endowment will support scholarships for education majors. Mrs. Tisdale is a published author, motivational speaker, and is an appointee by South Carolina Governor Nikki Healey to the Governor’s Mansion and Lace House Commission. Below is an interview with Mrs. Tisdale regarding her decision to create an endowment. Why did you choose to attend ECSU? Actually my aunt, who was a guidance counselor in New Bern, had my parents send me to Elizabeth City from the Philippine Islands, which was where I attended high school. She knew the elementary education program, liked the environment, and thought it was the best fit for me. Why did you choose to establish this endowment? Having been an educator for over 40 years, and working in higher education for 20 of those years, I cannot stress enough to young African American kids the importance of a college education and its impact on their future and the world. The world needs visionaries, and today’s youth are smart…intelligent…visionary. They are, and will become the change agents that our world needs. It is up to us to do what we can to help provide the financial support that will enable the next generation to come into their "greatness," and help to solve some of the world’s greatest and most complex challenges facing our global society today. Why do you give back to ECSU? I choose to give back to ECSU because ECSU gave to me. Not only did I receive a sound education as an elementary education major, but I left with the skills, knowledge base, confidence, and ethics that made me a District Teacher of the Year, director of a first class university honors program, community and state leader, and First Lady of a top HBCU- Claflin University. What would you do to support ECSU if you had unlimited resources? If my resources were unlimited, I would probably do more to finance promising education majors, establish endowed university professors, and build a campus state-of the-art Honors Center/Complex in honor of my classmate and former president of ECSU, Dr. Willie J. Gilchrist, ’73. What is your challenge or charge to fellow alumni of ’73? My challenge to the class of 1973 is: "Give. Give to keep Elizabeth City State University alive and thriving."
