Bowie State launches scholarship in honor of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III

Bowie State officials and students gather last week to celebrate the launch of the 2nd Lt Richard Collins III Leadership with Honor Scholarship. (Credit: Bowie State/Twitter)

Bowie State University launched a new scholarship program on Nov. 28 in honor of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III, who was fatally stabbed on the University of Maryland campus on May 20, 2017.

As of last week, Bowie State officials have announced that they will honor him by approving legislation that Gov. Larry Hogan signed off on with efforts to set aside $1 million each year known to be the 2nd Lt. Richard W. Collins III Leadership with Honor Scholarship.

There was great celebration on Wednesday, as this scholarship is expected to help increase the number of ROTC enrollment at all four of Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities. Members of the ROTC must be eligible for in-state tuition, a minority or member of an underrepresented group in the ROTC and must attend an HBCU, according to The Capital Gazette’s Rachael Pacella.

As co-sponsors, Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Miller and Maryland Senate majority Leader Douglas J.J. Peters backed this legislation to be granted to the worthiest cadets “with 25 percent slated for Bowie State and the rest going to Morgan State, Coppin State and University of Maryland Eastern Shore,” according to Pacella..

Brandon Williams, a senior broadcast journalism major at Bowie State added, “I think it will definitely help recruitment when it comes to the ROTC program at Bowie State and other HBCUs in Maryland. Richard was accomplishing great things and was no doubt on his way to accomplishing more.”

The late Collins was known to be a great leader among his ROTC community at Bowie State. He was fatally stabbed near a campus bus stop just days before he was set to graduate. Sean Urbanski, a former Maryland student, has been charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime.

The hate crime charge is the result of Collins being the only African-American in his group of friends that night, as well as various FBI investigations that prove Urbanski’s connection to a Facebook hate-group known as the “Alt-Reich: Nation.”

Urbanski’s trial has been postponed to January 2019 after his lawyers said they needed more time to review documents in the case.