Kent County High School senior Darius Johnson is the 2011 recipient of the Kent County Vincent Hynson ’87 Scholarship at Washington College. Created in honor of the late Vincent Hynson, an alumnus who led a rich and diverse life as a teacher,
coach, pastor, and leader in the Kent County community, the scholarship is awarded to a Kent County resident from an underserved population whose achievements and aspirations reflect those of Rev. Hynson.
The son of Barry and Deborah Johnson of Worton, Darius Johnson earned the Vincent Hynson Youth Award while in middle school for his academic achievement and his service work with Discovery Corps. In his scholarship essay, he wrote that growing up in a tight-knit community full of caring and generous people had taught him that helping others is a civic duty. And he credited his seventh grade social studies teacher, Mr. Ed Stack, for introducing him to the Discovery Corps experience and helping him realize that “I needed to set goals and work with determination to become successful.”
Johnson has maintained a 3.5 grade point average in high school, been a member of the bowling league and worked at the Chester River Yacht and Country Club. He hopes to pursue a career in engineering.
In his essay, Johnson acknowledged Vincent Hynson’s legacy as a man who extended a helping hand and inspired people to be open to possibilities. Vincent Hynson graduated from Washington College in 1987 with a degree in history. He went on to train in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was the pastor of the Millington-Pondtown group of churches, as well as the St. John’s United Methodist Church. Hynson’s leadership in many Kent County youth organizations, including 4-H, Big Brothers, and Kent Youth Inc., showed his faith in the potential of young people. He also taught for 10 years at Rock Hall Middle School and was a Kent County High tennis coach. As Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey has recalled, “for Vincent, teaching was the answer. For him, it was finding the way to reach young people and help them pull themselves up, fulfill a good life, and make a good world.”
Hynson died in 2004, and the scholarship fund in his name was announced in Fall 2006.
For more information on the scholarship: https://fa.washcoll.edu/scholarships_vincenthynson.php
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