Freddie & Ada Brown Award

The North Jersey Section of the ACS has recently established a new award in the name of Freddie and Ada Brown, parents of NJ-ACS chemist Jeannette Brown.

This Award recognizes and encourages high achieving middle-school and high-school students, of African American and Native American heritage, to further develop their academic skills, with views on careers in the chemical sciences

• Award announcement
• Award Application and Guidelines
• Please note:  The application deadline for the award each year is  March 31 .
  For 2022, the Scholarship deadline extended to May 31, 2022

Background

Freddie and Ada Brown were the parents of Jeannette Brown, a pioneer African American woman chemist. Although they never studied chemistry they encouraged their daughter to pursue a career as an industrial medicinal chemist at a time when there were few African Americans in the field. Ms Brown has discovered in her search of the history of African American (Women) Chemists that each one of them had a mentor or teacher to help them to succeed. This award is dedicated to the parents and mentors of current African American and Native American chemical practitioners with the hope that the recipients follow in their footsteps.

Many factors affect the first conscious steps of young people about to assume grown-up responsibilities: the state of their intellectual development, innate ability and inclination, socio-economic conditions, traditions of their environment, conception of reality, all requiring mature decisions from, by definition, immature individuals. Yet, these decisions will determine the extent of realization of their full potential, direct their lives, and define their role in society. In such instances, concerned and illuminated recognition is invaluable in overcoming uncertainty and hesitation, igniting ambition and the desire to succeed. Attention and sympathy are crucial.

The objective of this Award is to identify and encourage high achieving middle- and high-school students, of African American and Native American heritage, to further develop their budding academic skills, with views on careers in chemistry.

• The award will consist of a monetary prize and a mentor to follow the career of the recipient. We expect to present 4 awards per year.
• Funds for this award will come from private and corporate donations with a dollar for dollar matching grant of up to $2,000 to be donated by Ms Brown
• This award will be inaugurated during the academic year of 2008-09 with the first presentation to be given in the spring of 2009.

If you would like to contribute to the matching grant for this award which is tax deductible just as is any ACS award, please send a check payable to North Jersey ACS Freddie and Ada Brown Award, mail to

North Jersey ACS Section Office
Freddie and Ada Brown Award
Attn: Jeannette Brown
49 Pippins Way
Morris Township NJ 07960

If you would like to mentor a student or have questions, please email Jeannette E. Brown, or call 908-239-1515.