LIVE: First Lady Melania Trump Announces $5 Million Scholarship Fund at LSU for Former Foster Youth

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Wade Rous, President of LSU, Krista Rainey, President and CEO of the LSU Foundation, and James B. Pepper Rutland. Afternoon. We are so, so excited to be here today. Thank you for being here on this historic day for LSU and specifically for our students. We're changing the way we educate Louisiana through excellence and accessibility, and today's announcement with the First Lady He fits perfectly with that goal. Today is a win. Today we win. At LSU, we believe talent is everywhere, but we understand that opportunity is not. That is why access is one of our highest priorities. Students who have experienced foster care have already demonstrated tremendous resilience, determination, and potential. Our responsibility. Our responsibility is to make sure circumstances beyond their control do not stand between them and a life-changing higher educational experience. Earlier this year, LSU had the honor of being invited by the First Lady of the United States to become a Fostering the Future Partner School. We were determined from the very beginning to make that partnership meaningful. This fall, Fourteen LSU students became fostering the future scholars, receiving funding to cover the cost of tuition, fees, and books. Today, today we take an extraordinary step. Thanks to the leadership of our First Lady and the incredible generosity of LSU alumnus Pepper Rutland. Pepper's here somewhere. Pepper Rutland and his company, MMR. Through MMR's $5 million leadership commitment. The First Lady and LSU have been able to establish an endowment that will provide approximately $200,000 a year, every year, forever into the future to support LSU students who have experienced foster care. That word forever matters. This endowment will create opportunities for generations of LSU students, and because of this new scholarship that will not only help with tuition, fees, and books, but also with room and board. Because of that, we will be able to proactively address some of the real barriers that face former foster children who do not have the traditional financial support system behind them when they get accepted to college. Pepper, Pepper, this entire MMR group family, thank you so much for believing so deeply in LSU and in the potential of these young people. Today perfectly represents what LSU is called to do. Open doors to opportunity and prepare people to build lives of purpose and impact through the Three letters, two colors, one state. We are all LSU. And now it is my great honor as president of the LSU system to introduce the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, and to celebrate what her Fostering the Future initiative is making possible for young people all across this country and right here, right now at LSU. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the First Lady of the United States of America, Melania Trump. How incredible is this? I need to pinch myself. How incredible is this? As the First Lady joins us, I'd like to take a moment to share our gratitude for her partnership with LSU and for her care for our students. Mrs. Trump, one of the great privileges of being part of the LSU family is that our spirit is unmatched. Our spirit is unmatched. I hope you feel it today, and I hope you feel it in the stadium a little later. On behalf of LSU, it is my pleasure to present to you with an LSU football helmet bearing the Be Best Fostering the Future logo, just as every football player will wear in the game today. We'd also like to present you with your very own LSU jersey with the Be Best patch that will be worn by every one of our players today to commemorate not just your visit to Baton Rouge, but also your lasting impact on the lives of our students. Finally, we have a special guest here to present you with a gift that was made for the celebration of this milestone day. The company Big Game USA, owned by our very own LSU alumnus, Chris Calandro, makes the footballs used as many, many NCAA programs around the country, including ours right here at LSU. Chris was kind enough to design and donate a custom, Be Best Fostering the Future football, and here to present it to you is our very own Coach O. Mrs. Trump, I hope you can feel our excitement. We are beyond excited that you are here today. We want to thank you so much for the opportunities you are creating for future leaders across the country and for trusting LSU to carry your vision forward. We are super, super, super excited and I think everyone here can't wait to hear your comments. Good afternoon, tigers. President Roos, Governor Landry, Mr. Rotland, and all of the distinguished guests who have welcomed me to Louisiana today, thank you for your support. A young person's life, the world can feel like things are uncertain. It's hard to know which way to go, and the future can seem out of reach. Children navigating foster care, that feeling of drifting can feel even stronger. Today, Louisiana State University is launching $7,200,000, Fostering the Future scholarship in Dublin. This achievement will give young people from foster care an anchor of stability, a strong educational foundation, and a chance to build a wonderful life. Thank you, LSU, for giving the foster care community this advantage. After meeting LSU's leadership and this remarkable community, I'm not surprised by your achievement. You have united by giving young people with few resources the tools to chart their own future. MMR and the generous donors who made this 7,200,000 milestone possible. Know that investing in young people will create opportunities for Baton Rouge for many generations. This is very good for America. LSU defines excellence. Your high standards start in the classroom, amplifies on the football field, and shapes America's future leaders. Thank you for welcoming me to Baton Rouge. For one of this year's greatest college football games, LSU versus Alabama. Both universities are part of fostering the future. While most eyes will be on the athletes today, I encourage you to recognize LSU's fostering the future scholars who are just as remarkable. Today, we have 14 scholars at LSU and nine at Alabama. Across the country, 26 universities are supporting 100 Fostering the Future scholars this semester. When I started Fostering the Future in 2021, my vision was clear. Every young person from foster care should have the chance to build an extraordinary life. Education is the center of that plan. A greater education does more than prepare someone for work life. It gives something no one can ever take away. There is nothing more powerful we can give a young person than a world-class education. As adults, we have a moral obligation to our children, especially those in foster care. But as you know, we must act to truly make a difference. The foster care community doesn't need words. To the Foster the Future scholars here today and throughout America, I see you, I believe in you, and I will keep working to create new opportunities with you. Explore the programs, scholarships, and resources we have created, and make the most of them. You can control your own destiny now. Let's go and enjoy the game. It is an important one. It is my distinct honor to welcome a true LSU icon, the founder and CEO of MMR, Mr. James B. Pepper Wolfman. This is a great honor to be here, a great presentation. I want to thank, first of all, Mr. Trump. Ms. First Lady, the United States for coming here and doing this, to be part of the program, recognizes the importance of creating opportunities for young people and helping them have a bright future. I also want to thank the LSU Foundation, President of the University for participating and getting involved in this, the donors who joined our commitment, and everyone whose partnership and support helped make this possible today. When people talk about opportunity, they often talk about hard work, determination, perseverance. All those things do matter. But over the years, we've learned that opportunity also depends a lot on something else. It depends on somebody opening a door, somebody believing in you, somebody giving you the opportunity to succeed. We all benefit from people who invest in us and encourage us and help us see the possibilities that are out there. That's why we at MMR, Fostering the Future Endowed Scholarship, was created through the LSU Foundation. And at MMR, we've always believed from day one our greatest responsibility is investing in people. We're a people business. When we invest in people, we invest in the future. And that's exactly what this scholarship is designed to do. For the students that have experienced foster care, the path to higher education comes with a lot of challenges. Many are navigating college without support, yet they arrive with determination, resilience, and the desire to build a better life for themselves. Those are really good qualities and we admire that. As an LSU graduate, Former football player who missed maybe too many tackles. And a member of LSU's first CM program, graduating class, I know firsthand how education and opportunity can change the course of a person's life. LSU, win or lose, helped shape who I am and probably who a lot of you are. The education that I got here, the lessons, some heart that I learned, and the people who invested in me in an important role in my, play an important role in my career, for sure. In a company we built over 35 years, so that's one of the reasons this scholarship is so important to me personally. It is an opportunity to help extend that same support to others. What's most exciting about this scholarship is that it isn't just helping students today, it's about helping students for generations to come. By creating an endowed scholarship, We're establishing a permanent source of support that will continue opening doors and creating opportunities for the future. At MMR, we've always believed that our greatest legacy isn't measured by what we build, but by the people we build along the way. Think about that. That belief reminds me, actually, to a book given to me by a former LSU athletic director, one of you probably fired. Thank you. But in it, in it, the author reflects on how small actions can impact, have a lasting impact, writing about, writing that to each of us constantly, this, your, every decision constantly changes the world. Think about it. Who you marry, where you grew up, where you went to school, every decision impacts something for you in the future. So everything in life can be sustained or shaped by a single decision. You think about it, it's really true. An individual choosing to give back, a company choosing to invest in the next generation, and a student choosing to pursue the education. How that changes everything. So with that, I just want to end this. Those decisions create opportunities. They open doors. They have the power to change the course of somebody's future. Today, through this scholarship, we hope to do exactly that. We're proud to play a role. Small role in the opportunities and be grateful as a part of the initiative and this will make a difference in generations to come. Mrs. Trump, it is our honor that you would be here. We thank you very much. You have no idea the impact that you being here has on us. It's got all these people in the room here, they're not here for me, they're here for you. We know that and we wanna continue to do this. It's a big impact for the state. The governor's here. He knows it. We know it. Coach O's here. He's big on the LSU football program. It couldn't be a better time, a better place, and a better situation to do this. We thank all of you for coming. The donations, we hope, will continue to do exactly what we ask. Control, create opportunity for people's lives to get better. Thank you very much. We're done. Mrs. Trump, what I heard you say is that LSU has 14 scholarship recipients and Alabama has 9. So I think that means we've already won the first. Thank you for your leadership and generosity. You are a true friend to LSU and we are deeply proud to call you a Tiger. And thank you for answering the phone when I called. Today, we celebrate not only this new scholarship, but also the generosity it has inspired. Mrs. Trump. I don't get to say that every day, so I'm just going to pause. Mrs. Trump. Pepper and the MMR team, I am deeply honored to share with you that 75 LSU Foundation donors, many of whom are in this room today, were motivated to give an additional $2.2 million to bring the Fostering the Future Endowed Scholarship at LSU to more than $7.2 million and growing. Together, your gifts will change the lives of students for generations to come. We are proud to celebrate your shared impact and your extraordinary dedication to LSU. As we close this special time together, I'd like to share a special thank you with the First Lady and Pepper. Pepper, I'm honored to let you know that yesterday we did what is the highest honor for an alum at LSU. We flew the American flag over the LSU parade ground in your honor. And we are sincerely looking forward to being able to give that to you and Ms. Connie to treasure in your home. Thank you so much for your generosity. Mrs. Trump, we also have one final really neat gift to share with you. This one carries a very special piece of LSU with it. Nearly 100 years ago, LSU's landscape architect, the late Steele Burden, began carefully planting live oaks throughout our campus. Over the decades, those seedlings grew into the hundreds of stately oaks that are now inseparable from the beauty and character of LSU. This custom bowl was handcrafted by Malthrop Studios in Atlanta from the wood of a fallen limb of an iconic LSU oak. We chose this gift because its story feels especially fitting today. Just as these oaks were planted generations ago by someone who understood that their greatest impact would be realized far into the future, fostering the future is planting opportunities whose impact will be felt for generations. We hope this will serve as a lasting reminder of your mark on the young people who will emerge from foster care equipped with an LSU education, go Tigers, and prepared to lead for a lifetime. To everyone who joined us today, thank you for celebrating this historic, extraordinary moment for the students and LSU. At this time, I'll invite our guests to depart via the shuttles we have waiting to take you over to the stadium. And finally, most importantly, Go Tigers! Go America! Beat Bama!