The Project

According to campus tradition, every class at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (Greensboro, N.C.) must have a "project," and the class of '52 wanted theirs to be something special. In their freshman year, the girls met and finally decided: they would support one of their own members through college by raising money and turning it over to two faculty advisers. An essential condition of the fund: none of the girls was to know which of her classmates got the scholarship.

For three years the advisers guarded their secret, and each year the girls added to their kitty. They sold stockings and stationery, put on shows, often chipped in some of their own allowances. Meanwhile, ordinary campus activities went on. The girls joined clubs, took examinations, got to be seniors. Finally came the time for the election of permanent class officers.

It was the last meeting of the class, and every girl was on hand as the nominations for permanent president began. One name proposed filled the room with cheers: it was little (104 Ibs.) Lila June Rainey of Lexington, N.C., who had already been elected president of the student body and had run away with a host of undergraduate honors. The only other girl nominated quickly withdrew ("I'm not going to run against June"). June was elected by acclamation, and the meeting was about to break up, when one of the faculty advisers said: "May I say something I've been waiting three years to say?"

The adviser, Dr. Eugenia Hunter, spoke slowly at first, reminding the girls of how the project had begun and of how the scholarship worked. "I have watched this scholarship grow," said she, "as I watched the girl grow with it." Then, turning to the most popular member of the class, she broke the secret. "The girl who received it is the girl you have just elected your everlasting president--Lila June Rainey."

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