Helping future generations

Wright State graduate Arthur Hill’s desire to help future students served by the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center and the African American Alumni Society inspired his recent gift to the university.

Wright State University’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center holds a special place in Arthur Hill’s heart.

As a student in the early 1970s, Hill remembers spending hours writing papers at an empty table in the Bolinga Center.

“Bolinga gave me security and confidence,” said Hill, who would handwrite all of his papers because he could not afford to have them typed.

Handwriting those papers was no easy task for Hill.

When he was a second grader at Edison Elementary School in Dayton, his teacher told him that his handwriting looked like chicken scratch. While such harsh words would have crushed most children, Hill took the criticism as an impetus for self-improvement. He would grab every piece of scrap paper that he could find, using them as blank slates on which he could practice his handwriting.

Even as a Wright State student, Hill was still perfecting his handwriting.

“The Bolinga Center kept one of my papers as an example for other students,” said Hill. “The Bolinga Center was very instrumental in the growth of Wright State students. It’s very important that students and alumni know that.”

Hill’s desire to help future generations of students served by the Bolinga Center and the African American Alumni Society inspired his recent gift to the university. Along with contributing to the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center Student Emergency Fund and the Bolinga Center Program Fund, he has created the Arthur L. Hill (Bowdean) Endowed Scholarship.

As a proud Wright State graduate, Hill is happy to give back to his alma mater.

“One of the main feathers in my hat is a degree from Wright State. It always will be, because nobody can ever take that back,” said Hill, who graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Over the years, Hill has served in the military, where he went to officer candidacy school. He has also worked as a substitute teacher in Dayton Public Schools and as a guide at the Paul Laurence Dunbar House. He is currently a janitor at Goodwill.

Hill hopes his gift will inspire other Wright State alumni.

“If a little old janitor can do something, everyone can do something,” he said.