Legacies

Alumna Honors Daughter, Mentor

Marne and Wrenn ElamMarne Elam (BASW 1973) recently endowed the Wrenn Margaret Elam & Evelyn J. Black Scholarship in Children’s Mental Health, honoring her daughter, Wrenn, and the late professor Evelyn Black. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a social work student planning to work in an educational or mental health setting with children, or who has an interest in studying the unique mental health needs of children.

Marne commented, “I’ve had many careers throughout the years (social worker, psychiatric counselor, office worker and currently special education teacher) and have always discovered, not surprisingly, that I continue to utilize the education and training I gained and developed at the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate social work student in the early ‘70’s. I feel strongly that my social work education at UK prepared me for the challenges of a Masters Degree program at George Washington University (M.Ed. in Counseling, 1981) and, even more recently, the completion of a teacher’s certification program at the University of Virginia. In short, my education through UK’s Department of Social Work has served me well throughout my personal and professional life. It was the broad base of the pyramid of my professional life.” In gratitude, Marne created the Elam–Black Scholarship in Children’s Mental Health.

She named the scholarship in honor of her daughter, Wrenn, who is a student majoring in Special Ed in UK’s Professional Teacher Program. Marne said, “Her abiding interest in the educational needs of exceptional children mirrors my own lifelong interest in human behavior and mental illness. Furthermore, her appreciation of her continuing professional education at UK completes the circle started 35 years ago when I began my educational career in Lexington.” Ms. Elam also chose to honor the memory of her undergraduate academic advisor, the late Dr. Evelyn J. Black, whom she admired and trusted. “She was truly a guiding force for me and an individual I’ll always remember,” said Marne.