21/06/2026
ROBERT LORENZO WRIGHT TRAVEL SCHOLARHIP under the auspices of the Patricia D. Wright Foundation & Scholarship Fund, Inc.:
June 6, 1996 represented the 30 year anniversary of the physical departure of a person who played a very instrumental role in my desire to travel both domestically and global. That person was my mom‘s oldest brother Robert Lorenzo Wright, who was born on September 13, 1937 and passed away June 6, 1996. Robert Lorenzo Wright was a graduate of Lincoln University, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, a public school teacher, a second Lieutenant in the US Army and an activist in both Chicago and Atlanta as activism runs in our families’ blood👈🏽👊🏾👌🏾
As a young person in the age range of 12 years old, Uncle Bob suggested that I start listening to a short wave radio. When he utter those words, I sort of tilted my head like a cat looking at Uncle Bob, because I had no idea what a “short wave radio” was. Uncle Bob explained to me as he taught me much through conversations and thought provoking suggesting, that a SHORT WAVE radio would give me the capacity to listen to radio broadcasts throughout the world from Cincinnati . So I started listening to Radio Netherland, Radio Canada, Radio Japan, and many other international radio stations who had an English speaking service as a part of their radio service. And in some cases, even if there was no English speaking broadcast, it was fascinating to me to be able to hear another countries’ radio station from Cincinnati.
This pricked my consciousness to really become aware of the fact that the world is a big place and there are a lot of places to travel. Fast forward to my current age 57, soon to be 58, God willing. Since that suggestion and listening to SHORT WAVE radio at age 12, I’ve traveled extensively globally (59 Countries trending near 70 by year end) and domestically (50 States, US territories) and to all seven continents (Antarctica this past January), but the idea and the seed to travel/explore started with Uncle Bob at age 12.
As mentioned, the Robert Lorenzo Wright Travel scholarship will operate under the auspices of the Patricia D Wright scholarship fund, a 501 (c) tax exempt public charity that has awarded nearly $50,000 in scholarships, computer tablets and books.
At my Father’s Day celebration with my Sons today, we convened a special meeting of the board of the Patricia D Wright scholarship foundation and passed a special resolution to create the Robert Lienzo Wright Travel scholarship, which will be awarded starting in 2027.
Each Robert Lorenzo Wright Travel scholarship recipient, after application and approval by our board will receive:
-$500 stipend towards travel in furtherance of their education and affiliated with a school trip
-SHORT WAVE radio
-travel map and pins to mark each place traveled
We will leverage a similar process to our current process for the Patricia Wright scholarship, but create a separate process for the Robert Lorenzo Wright Travel scholarship.
For avoidance of doubt and 100% clarity, the Patricia D Wright scholarship will still be the primary scholarship fund and those scholarships, which have been awarded now for 10 years, will continue to be awarded as they have been.
The Robert Lorenzo, Wright Travel scholarship will be separately managed from the other PDW college scholarships with a separate application process. The details on applying for the Robert Lorenzo Wright scholarship will be forthcoming. It will very likely be an online application submission that will require some verification of travel for a student pertaining or connected with their education in high school. And while we recognize $500 is not a tremendous amount of money, it will assist in helping a student to make a trip, especially if for instance, the flight is a domestic flight and it’s booked in sufficient time. You could most likely get a round-trip ticket to most places in the US.
So I had been intensely grappling since June 5 with a gesture to honor Uncle Bob as he had been on my mind. What I should do crystallized for me while I was out hiking in the various places in Nicaragua and El Salvador and it is the Robert Lorenzo Wright Travel scholarship🙏🏾
