Sacred Heart Student Honored in Community Foundation of Greater New Britain Program

Khalil Graham is 2010 Recipient of the Alma Exley Scholarship
Established in 1995 to Promote Greater Diversity in Teaching

New Britain, Conn. (May 26, 2010) – Fifty supporters, including several previous recipients of the Alma Exley  Scholarship were on hand to congratulate the 2010 recipient, Khalil Graham, at a reception at the Noah Webster Library, West Hartford.

Khalil Graham, of Bridgeport, recently graduated from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.  He  received a scholarship from the program established in memory of Alma Exley of West Hartford, a former teacher and an employee of the Connecticut State Department of Education. She died in March 1995 from breast cancer. Exley envisioned the program as a way to encourage diversity in the teaching profession by recognizing and supporting outstanding persons of color who are preparing for careers in education. 

The program is one of many scholarship programs administered by the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain.  “The Community Foundation has been a devoted partner since the beginning,” said Wood Exley, who established the program in memory of his late wife. “The Foundation staff has been a most valuable resource in enabling the program to grow and flourish.”

Graham has been accepted into a doctoral program in educational leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is a 2005 graduate of Loomis Chafee High School, Windsor and completed his undergraduate studies in 2008 at the University of Richmond in Virginia. He received a master’s degree this month from Sacred Heart University. Mr. Graham is the 20th individual to be honored at the 14th annual reception of the Alma Exley Scholarship Fund.

Previous recipients attending the reception honoring Graham were Chi-Ann Lin of Bridgeport, a teacher at Staples High School, Westport; Desi Nesmith of Manchester, principal of America’s Choice School at SAND, Hartford; Ollie-Rubiah Williams of West Hartford, a teacher at Farmington Valley Diagnostic Center, Avon; and Sacha Kelly of Hartford, a teacher at Big Picture High School, a magnet school in Bloomfield serving several towns in the Hartford region.