ATLANTA — Fresh off seeing his mother and grandmother enshrined forever at Spelman College, filmmaker and Morehouse College graduate Spike Lee has announced a new fellowship program for Atlanta University Center graduates.
The inaugural class of five Spike Fellows, all graduating seniors, will receive a paid graduate study summer internship, executive mentorships and $25,000 in student loan payoff and debt relief.
Lee is partnering with the Gersh Agency, one of the leading talent agencies in the world, who will provide full-time job placement at the company this fall for the fellows.
The fellowships will be open to students at Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta University.
Lee is a 1979 graduate of Morehouse but famously took his communications and film studies classes at Clark College, which is now part of CAU.
“From the jump, from the get-go, I knew when — not if — I opened a crack in the door, I was bringing as many Black and brown folks with me in front and behind the camera,” said Lee, who won an Academy Award in 2019 for “BlacKkKlansman” and whose film credits include “Malcolm X,” “Do the Right Thing,” and “School Daze,” which he shot at the AUC.
Last November, Lee was on hand when Spelman renamed the college’s admissions office after his grandmother, Zimmie Jackson, who graduated from Spelman in 1929, and his mother, Jacqueline Shelton, who was in the class of 1954.
His father and grandfather also attended Morehouse.
“I know firsthand the education one receives at a historically Black college and university,” Lee said. “As my elders often told me, ‘deeds not words.’ ”
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