Faces of Philanthropy

The Marcus Foster Scholarship

By Rebecca Raber

here is an old Quaker saying: “Let your life speak.” It means that the way you live should be exemplary of your deepest held beliefs. Though most members of the Penn community are Quakers in name but not religion, they let their lives speak in many ways: by living their values, working towards a more just and equitable world, and supporting the students coming up behind them.

Marcus Foster, GED’49, GRD’72, is one such alum whose life has spoken across generations, reverberating well beyond his own too-brief lifetime. The Penn GSE alum and former University Trustee was a dedicated educator, transformative leader, and the first Black superintendent of a major urban school district in the US whose life was tragically cut short by bullets from an extremist’s gun in 1973. [More below.]

In life, his impact could be felt in the improvements he made in some of Philadelphia’s most overlooked, under-resourced—and, not coincidentally, Black—schools, in the lives of the students he changed and the educators he inspired, and in his innovative school fundraising concepts. (He created America’s first education foundation, a model that now exists across 2,500 districts nationwide, according to EdSource.)

In death, he inspired an outpouring of gifts from more than 450 donors, including those across Penn GSE, the wider University, and the School District of Philadelphia, to enable students from underserved communities “to work full-time toward obtaining the tools of educational administration and research needed for the exercise of leadership in public education.”

Launched in 1984 with an initial goal of $150,000, the Marcus Foster Scholarship Fund eventually raised over $192,000 for doctoral scholarships at Penn GSE. Unlike most other endowed scholarship funds, which are often donated by a single person or family, Foster’s memorial fund was the result of hundreds of individual gifts, many as small as $10 or $20, in tribute to the lasting influence he had on the people and schools in his community—even those he never knew personally.

“When I first started donating to the fund, it was because of a family friend who was like a big sister to me. She had taught in an elementary school in Philadelphia where Dr. Foster was principal, and she thought so highly of him,” said Mary LaVerne Wright Miner, ED’61, whose own Penn education was made possible by scholarship. “I thought she would be glad to see what had happened at Penn in honor of him. … I know he was interested in improvement, empowerment, and encouragement, so I think he’d be very pleased to know that there have been decades of students’ lives that have been helped by his scholarship.”

The Marcus Foster Scholarship Fund is currently worth over a million dollars. That is the magic of an endowed scholarship—over time, the funds can grow and become a permanent source of support for deserving students.

“Simply put, endowed scholarships help ensure that Penn GSE can continue to prepare the kinds of passionate educators and leaders able to tackle the most pressing challenges in education—today and in perpetuity,” said Laura Tepper, vice dean of development and alumni relations who oversees fundraising initiatives for scholarship support at Penn GSE. “Importantly, endowed scholarships also embody our shared belief in the power of education and its ability to change lives.”

The Marcus Foster Scholarship has been changing lives for Penn GSE students for 40 years. Rhonda Jeter, GR’95, now dean of the College of Education at Bowie State University, the oldest HBCU in Maryland, was the inaugural recipient of the funding in the fall of 1984. Keri Davenport, a third-year PhD student in Learning, Teaching, and Teacher Education, is the latest.

“I was so happy to be selected to receive this fellowship in honor of such a great man,” said inaugural scholar Jeter. “I applied to the University of Pennsylvania to work on a doctoral degree in professional and scientific psychology. I was accepted into the program . . . but had not figured out how to pay for being in a full-time doctoral program. This fellowship changed my life.”

“The Marcus Foster Scholarship has made it possible for me to attend a selective university while focusing on research that I am passionate about without worrying about financial ability,” said Davenport, who studies how school personnel support the development of civic skills in high schoolers. “This scholarship allows me to do what I enjoy without financial stress.”

Though Foster’s life has been over for half a century, it is still speaking loudly—through the recipients of his scholarship, their work, and the many students’ lives they are impacting.

“Not only does the Marcus Foster Scholarship honor Dr. Foster’s legacy,” said Tepper, “but by awarding it to exceptional students year after year, it serves as an inspiration and recognizes the important work of educators.”

As the current recipient, Davenport wasn’t born until decades after Foster’s death, but she still thinks about what she would say to the man who has been such an influence on her career: “Thank you for your bravery and dedication to educational justice. I cannot imagine the internal pressure you felt as you forged a path for the next generation of minority educators. There is still work to do. Inequity remains in America’s education system, and social challenges persist. Yet, because of your sacrifice and the sacrifice of others, things are easier for me. Because you did, I can.”

When Marcus Foster, GED’49, GRD’72, became superintendent of Oakland Unified School District in California in 1970, he became the first Black leader of a big-city school district in the United States. But he wasn’t just a trailblazer, he was a visionary whose progressive ideas about education, as laid out in his 1971 book Making Schools Work, are still relevant today: ideas rooted in excellence, equity, and empathy.

Born in Athens, Georgia, in 1923 and raised in Philadelphia, Foster was a gifted student, earning a bachelor’s degree from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and graduate degrees from Penn GSE. He began his teaching career in Philadelphia public schools in 1949 at E.M. Stanton Elementary, eventually becoming assistant principal at James Rhoads Elementary, and later, principal at Paul L. Dunbar Elementary, O.V. Catto Disciplinary School, and Simon Gratz High School. By 1969, he was associate superintendent of schools in Philadelphia.

He was known for his “turnaround” of underperforming schools and the high expectations he had for his students, who came from under-resourced and minoritized backgrounds. In 1966, when he became the first Black principal of a Philadelphia senior high school, Gratz was infamous for its high levels of absenteeism and low graduation rates. Only 18 of the graduating seniors from the year before his arrival pursued higher education. By 1968—after expanding extracurricular programming, creating a night school for career development, establishing a nursing training program, and launching campaigns to re-enroll dropouts—180 graduates were college-bound.

That success led him to the superintendent job in Oakland, where he focused on improving academic standards, promoting inclusion, and fostering community engagement. As a superintendent, he implemented innovative initiatives aimed at reducing racial disparities in education and ensuring that all students had access to quality schooling.

“Foster focused on educating all children with rigorous curriculum and child-centered classrooms, making sure that we educators believed in every child’s ability and potential,” said Gary Yee, who began his teaching career in Oakland during Foster’s tenure as superintendent. “[He also] opened district doors for a significant cohort of administrators of color. As a young Asian American teacher, I gained role models who came from backgrounds like my own. Ten years later, I walked through those doors to become a site and district leader. I have humbly carried his message and encouragement for the 50 years I served in Oakland schools.”

Tragically, Foster was murdered leaving a school board meeting on November 6, 1973, by members of extremist group the Symbionese Liberation Army. His legacy lives on, however, through the continued efforts to advance his vision of inclusive and equitable education and in the many scholarships—including one at Penn GSE—in his name.