A longtime local educator has died. Alice Holloway Young, who fought for equity in education and helped establish both Monroe Community College and the Urban Suburban program died recently at the age of 100.
Holloway Young was a native of North Carolina, and moved to Rochester. She was the city school district’s first Black principal, and in 2021, Nathaniel Rochester Middle School No. 3 was renamed the Dr. Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence.
When Holloway Young appeared on WXXI-TV in 2018 on the program Norm & Company, she talked about starting the Urban Suburban program which allows students to apply to transfer from the Rochester City School District to suburban school districts, or vice-versa.
Holloway Young said that the idea was to break down barriers, and create a more equitable environment.
“Now if there are fences up there, how are the youngsters on this side of the fence, going to know what's on the other side of the fence? If I don't remove the fences. So the big thing was, I'm removing the fences,” Holloway Young said during the Norm & Company show.
She also recalled meeting Senator Robert Kennedy decades ago.
“He was interested in knowing what we were doing to integrate the schools, because we, the city school district made history because it integrated the schools prior to the federal mandate," said Holloway Young, "and so he came to see what in the world’s happening, and he liked what he saw.”
Holloway Young was a founding trustee of MCC in 1961, and has dedicated much of her life to instilling the value of education in students and community members.
On Monday, Mayor Malik Evans released a statement calling Holloway Young “a true pioneer whose courage, love, and commitment to provide an outstanding education for all Rochesterians has left an everlasting impact on our community.”
When asked by Norm & Company host Norm Silverstein, WXXI President, in 2018 about she would like her legacy to be, Holloway Young said that, “Always remembers that what you’ve done is because somebody else has sacrificed and done before you. Or have opened up paths and been supportive of you. So hopefully my legacy would be that I’m writing my memorial as I live.”
DeAnna Burt-Nanna, MCC President, said thatYoung was always very forward thinking in how she saw the future for that local college.
“She was thinking about community, she was looking into the future and at the present, to identify what could be something so transformational for our community that we should create a college that is inclusive of anyone who would like to have the opportunity to do better for themselves,” said Burt-Nanna.
There will be a memorial service for Alice Holloway Young on June 1 at 1:00 pm, held at the MCC theater on the Brighton campus.
