Steve Francis Comes Home to Launch Scholarship Fund at WAU
Written by: Everett Wiles
The three-time NBA All-Star and Takoma Park native unveiled the Steven Francis Scholarship Fund at the 13th Annual Visionaries Gala, honoring his late mother and opening doors for students across the DMV.
Steve Francis has played in arenas around the world. But the court that shaped him sits a few blocks from where he grew up, on the campus of what was then Columbia Union College.
At Washington Adventist University’s 13th Annual Visionaries Gala, the three-time NBA All-Star returned to that campus to launch the Steven Francis Scholarship Fund. The fund will award five $5,000 scholarships, $25,000 in total, to students pursuing higher education.
“Full circle, here at Washington Adventist University, we asked: What could I do to give back to this community that loves me so much?” Francis told the gala audience.
A Takoma Park kid on a church league court
Long before “Stevie Franchise” became a household name, Francis was a kid growing up behind Columbia Union College. He laced up for church league games at Metro Seventh-day Adventist Church, playing for the joy of it.
“Growing up in Takoma Park, you had your heroes: the people you saw working in the community as police officers and firefighters,” Francis said. “But very seldom did we have athletes who came from where I came from.”
The campus gym became his proving ground. “There was always a place we could go play basketball, and that was at Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University,” he said.
That bond never faded. Ahead of the 1999 NBA Draft, as scouts and general managers came to the D.C. area to evaluate him, Francis held his pre-draft workouts on the campus he grew up beside.
“When I had my private workouts before the NBA, I felt compelled to have the teams interested in me come see this little town in Takoma Park,” he said.
A fund rooted in his mother’s memory
The deeper roots of the fund trace back to loss. At 18, as he prepared to leave home for junior college, Francis lost his mother, his best friend, to cancer.
He has spoken candidly about how that loss forced him to grow up fast, carry his family forward and fight for opportunities largely on his own. Francis has said his mother was his first believer. She made higher education and a better life feel possible long before he played college basketball.
The scholarship fund is his way of making sure other young people from Takoma Park don’t have to make that fight alone.
Open to students across the DMV and beyond
The fund is rooted in Takoma Park but not limited to Montgomery County. Students across D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and beyond, may apply. WAU will share eligibility details and the application process in the coming weeks.
Francis stressed that the fund is meant for a wide range of students. “It’s not just for sports, and it’s not just for males. This school has a lot to give!” he said.
She said recipients “will learn and will celebrate the enduring reality that not only are they champions on the court, but they are champions in life.”
“For this empowering commitment, we will forever say thank you to Steve on behalf of the students and constituents entrusted to our care here at WAU, as we create competent moral leaders for such a time as this,” Kisunzu said.
For Francis, the launch is a first step. “I want to say thank you to the University for recognizing me for this,” he said. “This is only the beginning.”
