Starting in 2020, A prominent Carroll Alumni will present two graduates of Carroll High School with “full ride” scholarships that will pay all of their college expenses for four years
Representatives of Joyce and Thomas A. Moorehead foundation, met with Carroll Principal Eric Davis and the Alumni and Friends Association to confirm arrangements for the scholarships this year.
Moorehead, is a 1962 graduate of Carroll High School. He is also a 1966 graduate of Grambling State University. He is one of America’s premier businessmen who has been inspired to give back to a generation of emerging business leaders in Virginia and has given hundreds of thousands to students in Virginia.
In May of this year, billionaire businessman Thomas Smith informed students of Moorehouse College that he planned to pay off all of the graduating classes’ student loans. Smith, and Moorehead, who are friends, are among a handful of wealthy Black business persons who are investing in the next generation of African-American leaders.
Moorehead, who walked the halls of Carroll when its namesake Morris Henry Carroll was principal, was motivated to pursue a business career when he was young. He and his wife Joyce, through the “Moorehead Scholars Program” want to help deserving students each year at Carroll to pursue a career in business.
Working through the Carroll Alumni Association, the Mooreheads plan to select and completely finance the education two Carroll students each year with only two limitations: They must major in Business and they must attend either Grambling State University or Southern University. The Alumni Association will interview student applicants and recommend the recipients this year.
In addition, the Mooreheads plan to provide a paid internship for each of the students who will spend a summer learning business first hand.
Founded in 2004 by Joyce and Thomas A. Moorehead, the foundation has provided more than $400,000 in charitable assistance to working families and non-profit organizations in northern Virginia and greater Washington, D.C. Joyce, an attorney, and Thomas Moorehead, a 26 year veteran of the automotive industry, own BMW of Sterling, the largest African American owned BMW franchise in the nation, MINI of Sterling and Rolls Royce Motor Cars Sterliing. They also own several hotel properties located throughout the nation. Thomas, as owner of BMW of Sterling and MINI of Sterling, was recognized by Black Enterprise magazine as its 2007 Automobile Dealer of the Year.
Thomas is currently the Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD), which works to improve opportunities for all minority automobile dealers in the industry. Joyce is a member of the board of trustees of Bethune Cookman University. They are significant annual contributors to at least three historically black institutions of higher learning: Howard University, Grambling State University, Bethune Cookman University and several other civic and charitable organizations. Their commitment to education led them to endow scholarships through the Kappa Scholarship Endowment Fund and to fund the Moorehead Learning Center at the headquarters of a local chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
