Every year since 2008, my family and I have sponsored a small monetary, annual award, The Eddie Oliver Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, for a student in honor of my late grandfather, Eddie Oliver (1924-2006). We have awarded $5,700 to student recipients, so far.

My grandfather was an entrepreneur, but moreso he believed in having a vision and making things happen! He and his brother built the house (including all the electrical and plumbing) that my grandparents lived in for their entire 59 years of marriage. My grandmother lived there until her passing in 2014. My grandparent’s first vehicle was not a car, but a dump truck so that my grandfather could make additional money beyond what he was making as a truck driver. In the 1960s, he created “Eddie’s Snack Bar,” which was a traveling convenience store that my late uncle, Eddie Jr. ran. When he retired from being a truck driver in 1986, he founded “Eddie’s Recycling,” a recycling center in Eutaw, Alabama that my grandmother and Uncle Carl ran until 2015. This is only a small sampling of what my grandfather accomplished without ever finishing high school. He always had a plan for the future. 

Integrated Design & Media (IDM, formerly Integrated Digital Media), NYU Tandon, Brooklyn, NY

Kaia Baker, 2024
Roger Argueta, 2023
Shipon Eunus, 2022
Aryan Easwaran, 2021
Lucas White, 2020
Alexis Zerafa, 2018
B. Edan McDevitt, 2017
Matthew Conto, 2016

Multimedia, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Adam Samson, 2015
Kenny Guglielmino, 2014
Terry DiFeliciantonio, 2013
John Bonaccorsi, 2012
John Waller, 2011
Josh Johnson, 2010
Matt Trigaux, 2009
Travis Mullen, 2008