Scholarship for LCC students honors memory of Ngere Abdul Wali

Penny Wali wanted to honor her husband’s memory by lending a helping hand to students attending his alma mater, Lansing Community College. To do so, she started the Ngere Abdul Wali Scholarship Fund six years ago. The scholarship offers students $1,000 — about the cost of three classes at LCC.

Preference is given to students enrolled in the African-American History program, though anyone with a GPA of at least 2.5 can apply. Also preferred are students who plan on enrolling in historically Black colleges and universities to pursue their four-year degree.

Wali’s late husband dedicated his life to preserving African-American history. The two met at his shop, AfroVisions, in the Lansing Mall, which he owned and operated for over four decades, until he closed it in 2013.

In 1989, Wali was looking for a particularly hard to find Billie Holiday VHS tape.

“During lunch hour, I went over there to shop,” said Wali. At the time, she worked at Michigan State University as the budget and personnel director for the student services office. “That’s how I met him. I loved Billie Holiday, I loved jazz. I was just looking for that one VHS tape.”

Wali said that she collects anything related to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. She had rented the VHS — which featured a group of talented jazz singers covering Billie Holiday tunes — from a local video store. When she went to return the tape, she found out that the store had shut down.

Wali had planned to check out the film again. Instead, she went on a hunt to buy the tape, which led her to wander into her future husband’s shop.

“He had art. He had music, films, posters, books. So, I went over there and asked him about that film,” she said. “It took us a year and a half to look for it. We finally found it in Royal Oak. A year and a half after that, we got married.” It’s a story that sounds just like the plot of a rom-com.

They had been married for 24 years when he passed away in 2014 at the age of 60. “We followed jazz, we followed music around the country,” said Wali. “My husband played trumpet and flugelhorn. We went all around the country. We had a great life together.”

Wali partnered with her sister, Vicki Barker of Oakland County, and her son, Malik, who is an aeronautical engineer at the Ford Motor Co., to find a way to continue the work that her husband started at AfroVisions.

The store was his way of educating the community about the contributions that African-Americans made to this country’s history. So, since his death, Wali and her son started to sell her husband’s vast collection of historical artifacts. Some of the buyers were old friends of her husband, educators who could use the materials in a way that respected his memory.

Fittingly, Wali said that she plans to donate everything that doesn’t get sold to public schools and libraries.

“At this point, we wanted to contribute his material to educational institutions,” explained Wali. “We’re calling HBCUs and also looking at schools that have extensive libraries who could benefit from all this historical information.”

The scholarship is just another way for Wali to promote education. She chose to give the scholarship money to LCC students because her husband had a great experience there. He traveled to Japan and Kenya to build houses through a program offered at LCC.

Wali, who retired from Michigan State University in 2010 as director of budget and personnel in the student affairs office, wanted to support LCC in his honor because of his associations with it.

Wali also mentioned that her husband became a ping-pong champion while he was traveling abroad. She said that he played in the U.S. Open against professional Chinese players and won. “He was just an amazing man,” she said. “And he had such an extensive history and such a great collection.”

Starting the scholarship fund gave Wali the chance to create opportunities for students every year, so perhaps they can benefit from LCC as much as her husband did in his time there.

To her, the best part of founding a scholarship fund is receiving updates from the students. Every year, she gets letters from LCC students who are grateful for the help.

“We hear about what they’re studying, where they’re going to go to school, what their interests are. We really enjoy that,” said Wali. “It helps keep my husband’s legacy alive. You know, we’re able to continue the educational process that he valued so much and dedicated his life to.”