The
Bunton-Waller Fellows Program
Who Are Bunton and Waller?
Mildred Seller Bunton, 1932
In the face of overwhelming poverty, Mildred Seller Bunton refused to let economics steal her dream of attending college. Mildred, recognized as the first African-American female to graduate from Penn State, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Human Development in 1932. She worked for faculty in exchange for room and board, borrowed money for tuition, and won scholarships from the State Federation of Pennsylvania Women. Money wasn’t Mildred’s only obstacle; when she arrived at Penn State in 1929, she was the only African-American co-ed on campus.
She went on to earn a master’s degree in nutrition from Cornell University in 1953. Her career accomplishments include: Director of Dietetics at Freedmen’s Hospital, Associate Professor at Howard University, work with the 1969 White House Conference on Nutrition, Food and Health, and Subcommittee Chairman on the District of Columbia’s Mayors Commission on Food, Nutrition, and Health. In 1983, Mildred was listed in Who’s Who Among Blacks in Metropolitan Washington.
Desegregation often brings to mind the timeless images of the Civil Right’s struggle: protest marches, the Kent State anti-war demonstration, the “Whites Only” signs. Sometimes the most amazing stories of desegregation slip by with little notice and leave a lasting legacy for diversity. Calvin Hoffman Waller, class of 1904, is believed to be Penn State’s first African-American graduate, although there are no official school records from that time to indicate the students’ racial identity. A native of Macon, GA, Calvin earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture.
His arrival on campus doesn’t seem to have provoked any disturbances; instead, he distinguished himself as an accomplished vocalist and quarterback for the football team, the Tumblers. His professional accomplishments include: Associate Editor of Penn State’s La Vie, Head of the Agricultural Department at Prairie State University in Texas, faculty member at Haynes Institute in Augusta, GA, and Texas State Leader of Negro Extension work.