WASHINGTON — A few weeks ago, the bespectacled Alex Fournier—about 5-foot-5, balding, attired in a nice black, maroon-pinstriped suit—was sipping refreshments during a special reception before the annual Thurgood Marshall College Fund gala saluting historically Black colleges and universities.
At first glance, one might think Fournier was a professor for one of TMCF’s member HBCUs. He is White and appeared older than many of the youthful Black students—about 400 of them milling about at the reception—from HBCUs around the nation.
The assumption would be incorrect.
Fournier is a student, too. He also is a military veteran, having served in the Marine Corps in Iraq in 2008 and in Afghanistan in 2010.
Now, Fournier attends Norfolk State University, an HBCU. He’s an electronics engineer major, an exhaustive as well as exhilarating undertaking, for sure.
Six years ago, he was a key member of an infantry/artillery unit searching for improvised explosive devices in the most dangerous of circumstances in the Middle East. In the fall of 2016, Fournier was among about 1,300 participants attending the annual TMCF Conference-Leadership Institute that included a festive gala/awards show, hosted by talk-show host/comedian Wendy Williams, which capped the four-day event.
Fournier is an undergraduate student. At 27 years old. And married, with children. And a war veteran. A White war veteran.
