Uncrowned Community Builders

Alice Holloway Young was born on September 29 in Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Bennett College and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education Supervision and Administration from the University of Rochester. She became employed with the Rochester City School District in 1952 and pioneered as an African American educator over the next four decades. A gifted teacher, an untiring advocate and administrator, she is recognized as an energetic champion for the school children of New York State and had a pronounced influence upon Rochester higher education.

In many of her achievements, Dr. Holloway was the first in the field. For example, she was one of the District's first African American Classroom teachers; the only African American reading specialist in the District; the first Vice Principal and Principal of elementary schools; first Title I Director (programs for educationally and economically deprived children; wrote and supervised the District's first integration programs including the Urban Suburban Program which is still in existence and other firsts as well.

Her list of awards include the About Time Exemplar Community Uplift Award; Urban League of Rochester's Distinguished Community Service Award; Award for Humanitarian and Distinguished Achievement in Community Service; the Civic Award from the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce for Meritorious Contributions in the Field of Education, the University of Rochester Distinguished Alumna Award; and the highest honor conferred by the State University of New York Association of the Boards of Trustees of Community Colleges, the Anne M. Bushnell Memorial Award for Special Achievement.

Dr. Young is a former fellow at R.I.T.; a charter member of the Athenaeum and a former president of the five country Rochester Area Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity; the Delta Kappa Gamma International Education Society and the Rochester Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Warden of St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene Episcopal Church; and active in The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York. She is a member of Delta Nu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Dr. Young, named a trustee in 1961, helped to establish Monroe Community College. Overall, her commitment to the college has lasted more than four decades, serving as a Chair of its Trustees for twenty consecutive years (1978-1998) and recognized as the trustee who has served the college and the New York State community colleges the longest.

To help continue her mission and efforts to educate all of Rochester's children, Monroe Community College (MCC) inaugurated the Alice H. Young Teaching Internship for Ethnic Minority Graduate students in 1987. This unique program provides MCC students with a more culturally diverse faculty while giving them valuable teaching experience at a community college.

The Alice Holloway Young Society for Charitable Giving of the MCC Foundation was established to honor Dr. Young as a twentieth-century American pioneer in education.