August 8, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alan Richard, (202) 641-1300 or Danielle Smith, (470) 705-9365
Young Leaders from Maryland, Kentucky receive SEF Ginny Looney Servant Leader Award
Founders, fellows, partners celebrate 20 years of the Southern Education Leadership Initiative
ATLANTA — The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) recently announced this year’s recipients of the 2024 Ginny Looney Servant Leader Award: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill third-year student Bryan Sorto Hernández and Eastern Kentucky University third–year student Blake Benton, for their exemplary service during the 2024 cohort of the Southern Education Leadership Initiative (SELI), a program for promising leaders now in its 20th year.
Sorto Hernández worked this summer with Every Texan in Austin, Texas, contributing to the organization’s mission of ensuring a state where race and ethnicity no longer predict Texan’s well-being, opportunities and outcomes. Benton served with the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, contributing to its work of promoting improved education for all Kentuckians.
In remembrance of Ginny Looney, the late Atlanta-based attorney, the award is granted to exceptional SELI fellows who demonstrate excellent attendance, exemplary achievement and performance, and excellence in service during their summer fellowship. The honor acknowledges emerging leaders who exemplify Looney’s commitment to ethics, serving the community, advancing racial equity, and creating school systems in the South that can offer the opportunity-rich lives all children deserve.
The award was co-founded and endowed by Looney’s husband, Steve Suitts, former vice president of the Southern Education Foundation. “I am delighted with this year’s winners of the Ginny Looney’s Servant Leader Award. Both Bryan Sorto Hernández and Blake Benton are young leaders who are devoted to making equity in education a reality in the South. They brought extraordinary passion and dedication to their summer work and had an impact in a short period of time. Just as important, they have only just begun to use their growing talents and skills to continue to improve educational opportunities in their own southern communities,” Suitts said.
Each of the fellows have been awarded a $2,500 stipend to help continue their service work and a $500 donation to an education equity organization of their choosing.
Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, Sorto Hernández directed his donation to LatinxEd, a non–profit educational initiative in North Carolina whose mission is to invest in Latinx leadership to advance educational equity and opportunity in North Carolina.
“Ever since I arrived in North Carolina, LatinxEd introduced me to educational equity with a focus on the Latinx community. Their commitment and drive to empower and support the Latinx and immigrant communities through leadership development is crucial to these communities,” Sorto Hernandez said.
According to LatinxEd, North Carolina has the sixth fastest-growing Latinx population and the seventh-largest Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) population in the nation. “In a state like North Carolina, initiatives like LatinxEd need to be uplifted,” Sorto Hernandez said.
Benton, from Irvine, Kentucky, directed his donation to The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. “I chose this organization because I believe in their vision of Kentucky and want to support it in any way I can.” Benton continues, “I felt incredibly supported by The Prichard Committee in every aspect, and there was a clear desire that they had to see me grow over the course of the summer. Their desire to foster those traits of leadership in myself was the core defining factor in my personal growth.”
Suitts reflected on the program’s history at this year’s award presentation. “(Former SEF President) Lynn Huntley and I began SEF’s summer fellows program on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 2004, and the program continues to fulfill our best hopes. During each of the last 20 years, the Southern Education Leadership Initiative has had an amazing, diverse group of college students who have a rare opportunity to work with organizations that are in the continuing struggle to advance equity in education” he said. “Not only have they done exceptional work for the southern groups, but they have gained invaluable insights and new commitments to make a difference in their future lives.”
The SELI program at SEF provides intensive, eight-week paid summer fellowships, placing graduate and undergraduate students in nonprofit organizations, school districts, and state education agencies in the South to develop their leadership skills. SELI fellows interested in advancing racial equity and improving education across the pre-K through college continuum grow as leaders, advance the mission of their host sites, and acquire practical skills through direct learning experiences.
Part of SEF’s legacy of cultivating leaders in the South began more than a century ago. SELI’s 2004 launch marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, recognizing the work still to be done to fulfill the promise of racial equity in education.
SELI is celebrating its 20th year of service, now 70 years after the Brown v. Board decision.
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The Southern Education Foundation (SEF), founded in 1867, is an Atlanta-based research institution and policy advocate whose mission is to advance equity and excellence in education for all students in the South, particularly low-income students and students of color. SEF uses collaboration, advocacy, and research to improve outcomes from early childhood to adulthood. Their core belief is that education is the vehicle by which all students get fair chances to develop their talents and contribute to the common good.