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January 9, 2006
Warren E. Smith, M.D. Scholarships Enabling
La Salle Students to Reach Their Dreams
Two La Salle University students who have held fast to their dreams are that much closer to realizing them thanks to a scholarship honoring an African American pioneer.
 Michael Allen and Donna Payne are the recipients of the 2005 Warren E. Smith, M.D., Scholarship, awarded annually by La Salle’s African American Alumni Association. The scholarship is given to full-time La Salle students who demonstrate financial need, meet or exceed academic standards, make significant contributions to the community, and serve as outstanding examples to their peers.
Payne is working as a legal secretary at a law firm while pursuing a degree in elementary and special education at La Salle. She has a grade point average of 3.65 and says the scholarship will allow her to fulfill the program’s full-time teaching internship requirement.
“The scholarship is helping tremendously with my tuition,” said Payne. “There’s still a little more that I owe, and it’s a struggle, but I’ll get it together. I said that if I didn’t get my degree before I turned 50, I’d give it up once and for all.”
 Allen is an Air Force veteran and works at the Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Center of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He has a grade point average of 3.11 and he will use his scholarship to help pay the supplemental costs of attending La Salle as he finishes his nursing studies in the spring.
“I was shocked when I learned I had won the scholarship,” Allen said. “I had no idea I was up for it. It will help relieve some of the burden of attending college, like purchasing books and supplies.”
Warren E. Smith, M.D., was one of the first African Americans to graduate from La Salle’s pre-med program in 1954. He was La Salle’s psychiatrist from 1969 to 1984, when he retired. Smith also served on the staffs of Hahnemann University Hospital and Einstein Medical Center while maintaining a private practice. He also worked as a psychiatric consultant to the Philadelphia School District, the city’s Catholic schools, the Baptist Children’s Home, and the Philadelphia Police Department. Upon his death in 1990, La Salle alumni established a scholarship and an award in his name.
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