The West Virginia University Center for Black Culture and Research presented the Rev. Angela Walker with the 2003 Martin Luther King Achievement Award during the 18th annual Unity Breakfast Monday, Jan. 20, the day designated as a national holiday honoring Dr. King.

Walker is an ordained elder with the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has served as pastor of St. PaulAMEChurch in Morgantown since 2000.

“I am honored to have received this award,”Walker said.”When I think of the struggle and self-sacrifice of Dr. King, I am humbled to received any honor with his name attached.”

Dr. Kings fight for civil rights and equality for all people remind her of the struggle that remains and what role she can play in that future, she said.

“The major foundation has been laid, but we need to remember and to work continually,”Walker noted.”We have to be willing to engage in the struggle.”

The struggle that we are continuing, she said, is not just a racial issue. Its also an issue based on disabilities, economics and equality for all people.

Walker graduated with honors from Payne Theological Seminary, where she received a master of divinity degree. She previously won the June Morehead Marable Award for Outstanding Woman in Ministry and was a National Bible Scholar of the American Bible Society.

In addition to serving on the West Virginia Annual Conference Board of Examiners, AMEChurch since 2001, Walker has conducted many workshops and seminars and served on various community boards in Morgantown and abroad.

Before coming to Morgantown, she was the associate director of Inter-Faith Campus Ministry at CentralStateUniversity in Ohio from 1997 to 2000. From 1998-2000, Walker served as youth minister at the Central Chapel AME Church in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She also volunteered with Americorps/SCALE and the Literacy Volunteers of America.

Walker works with WVU s Health Sciences and TechnologyAcademy as field site secretary of Barbour, Preston, Taylor and Tucker counties. She is also currently enrolled in the higher education administration doctoral program at WVU .

During the Unity Breakfast, sponsored by the WVU Presidents Office, Tochukwu Aguoji was announced as the 2003 MLK Scholarship winner. Aguoji, a junior business management major, is from Belmont, N.Y.

The scholarship is awarded annually to a WVU undergraduate student who has demonstrated an active interest and meaningful involvement in areas of human rights, civil rights, social justice and/or world peace or other activities exemplary or reflective of the ideals and life of Dr. King.

“Mr. Aguoji possesses a combination of good academic skills and a tremendous amount of community service to the greater Morgantown community as well as to WVU ,”said Katherine Bankole, director of WVU s Center for Black Culture and Research.

In addition to being a volunteer with the health program, Salvation Army and the Ronald McDonald House, Aguoji also participated in Brothers and Sisters United. He has been a residence hall adviser at WVU since his freshman year.

“Mr. Aguoji has demonstrated a love of civil service and for people,”Dr. Bankole said.”We are very proud to acknowledge his service and to support his continued community involvement.”

The $1,000 award is applied to the 2003-04 financial aid package of the recipient ($500/semester). To be selected, the scholarship recipient must be a full-time sophomore or junior at WVU who possesses a 3.0 grade-point average or higher. Also, financial need, as determined by the WVU Office of Financial Aid, must exist.