Six fraternity brothers who met at Florida State University in the 1980s and are still friends today have established FSU’s first scholarship endowment dedicated to students from one of the historical fraternities known as the Divine Nine.
FSU graduates James Brooks, Donald Harvey, André Jackson, Charles Johnson, Leonardo Starke and Zack Stewart have launched the gift under their group name “Disciples of the Diamond” to endow a scholarship for students who belong to the Theta Eta Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, one of the nine Black Greek-letter organizations that comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
The first scholarship will go to FSU junior Alen Felix, a first-generation college student from West Palm Beach who is majoring in human development and family sciences on a pre-physical therapy track. He will receive $3,000 during the school year, which includes $2,000 from the state through a two-to-one matching program for gifts that support first-generation students. More students will receive funding through the scholarship as early as next semester.
“Being chosen to be the inaugural winner of a scholarship that comes from the previous brothers of my fraternity means absolutely everything,” Felix said. “It shows that brothers care to give back to where they came from. In the future, I will return the favor and do the same. I am truly grateful for this opportunity to receive this scholarship.”
The “Disciples of the Diamond” group, whose name references the diamond symbol commonly used by the fraternity, came up with the idea to endow an FSU scholarship while they were golfing together on vacation in the Dominican Republic. All first-generation students themselves, they made the commitment to one another that together they’d help college students who come from similar backgrounds.
“It’s just a sheer blessing that I could attend college, attend Florida State, get my degree, and then some of the other achievements, just a sheer blessing,” said Disciples member Stewart, who works as an operations site leader for Amazon. “And when you’re blessed, you’re being blessed so you can bless others. That’s what providing this endowment is: It’s a vehicle for us to bless others.”
After graduating FSU, all six friends secured successful careers that span the fields of aerospace operations, human resources management, real estate and entertainment law, biotech sales and corporate finance.
“ … it’s also about trying to get other fraternities and sororities to join us in the effort to contribute in this fashion, to give other students a chance to do what each of us had a chance to do.”
– Charles Johnson, FSU graduate and member of Disciples of the Diamond
They credit the fraternity – whose motto is “achievement in every field of human endeavor” – with setting them up with friendships and bonds that endure today and for empowering them with confidence to pursue “running the campus,” according to Stewart.
During the Disciples’ time at FSU, they and their fraternity brothers held leadership roles in the Black Student Union, Student Senate, Garnet and Gold Key, the Interfraternity Council, the Homecoming court and more.
“This kind of alumni support is exactly what we love to see at Florida State University,” said DeOnte Brown, assistant dean of Undergraduate Studies and the director of the Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement, FSU’s primary resource and programming hub for first-generation students. “Alumni engagement of any kind helps to make the culture at FSU special.”
Kappa Alpha Psi was founded in 1911 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, at a time when few Black students were enrolled at the school and the threat of racial violence loomed large in the region. It’s the second oldest existing collegiate historically Black letter fraternity, according to its website, and now boasts more than 150,000 members, with chapters in every U.S. state and multiple other countries.
The Disciples say they are now challenging others from the Divine Nine or other Greek organizations at FSU to fund similar scholarships, in a spirit of friendly competition.
“It’s a way of us recognizing and trying to help pull up some other young men that are going to be attending the university that could use a hand,” said Johnson, who is the chief human resources officer at MCR Health, based in the Tampa Bay region, and serves on the FSU Center for Human Resources Management Board of Directors. “But it’s also about trying to get other fraternities and sororities to join us in the effort to contribute in this fashion, to give other students a chance to do what each of us had a chance to do.”
For more information or to get involved, visit, give.fsu.edu.
