Tracy and Derrick Malone Minority Scholarship

Leaders on campus, leaders in their careers, leaders in philanthropy: Derrick ’93 and the Reverend Dr. Tracy Smith ’90 Malone came to North Central College with clear goals, honed their leadership skills and now are living the life they dreamt as young teens.

On campus, Tracy was active with the Multicultural Student Association and she was one of the change agents who initiated the Voices of Praise gospel choir, Gospel Extravaganza and new events for the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. She is also proud that she helped hire the first multicultural affairs director. “I’d been mentored in my church at home by my dad [the Reverend Willie Smith ’79], and other clergy, and I came to college fully engaged.” says Tracy. “And people like [former campus chaplain] Barbara Isaacs were very supportive and had the relationships on campus to make things happen.”

A marketing major, Derrick says that he honed his leadership skills by playing basketball and serving as team captain, a skill that came naturally as the oldest of five boys. “I’m a self-driven person,” he says.

Tracy went on to Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. She was honored with a Distinguished Leadership Award by the Black Methodists for Church Renewal and was elected to the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2013, Tracy received North Central’s Outstanding Alumni Award. Today, Tracy holds the position of Chicago Southern District Superintendent of the Northern Illinois Conference. Derrick is passionate about helping young people and serves as a mentor and tutor for children at a Chicago Public School. He’s led a basketball ministry at a former church.

Tracy and Derrick decided to share their success by establishing the Tracy and Derrick Malone Minority Scholarship, which was awarded for the first time in 2007-08. “We are giving people and we believe so strongly in education, especially the value of good academics,” says Derrick. “We both had student loans and we know there is an inability to fund education. We’d like to see the African-American student population grow at North Central … and we want to help make that happen.”