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Scholarships for collegians are perfect fit:
Clothing millionaires aid minority students
By Molly Bloom
Star-Ledger Staff

Tetla Watt-Barriffe of Union Township returned to college two years ago as a 45-year-old freshman, taking courses in administrative support and computers at Union County College for an associate's degree.

Watt-Barriffe, who emigrated from Jamaica in 1999, handled the 6:30 a.m. classes on top of her full-time secretarial job and volunteer peer tutoring with ease, but her path toward graduation, and the higher paying job she hoped for, began to falter this fall as she faced mounting student loans and a shrinking bank account.

After two years of hard work, she thought of dropping out until a helping hand from another immigrant kept her going. Watt-Barriffe was one of five Union County College students who received $2,000 scholarships from Korean-born fashion entrepreneurs David and Kenny Khym for this school year. Note: David and Kenny Khym are cq. Young Man Kim is also

For Watt-Bariffe, the scholarship was a dream-saver. "It was getting very difficult," said Watt-Bariffe, who has a 21-year-old daughter and 24-year-old son. "But because I have this I can still do my four subjects per semester. I'll be finished after this summer, thank God." A foundation established by David Khym, founder of Wicked Fashions, which makes Southpole-brand clothing, and his brother Kenny Khym, owner of the Against All Odds clothing store chain, has awarded the scholarships to five UCC students and 15 other New Jersey and New York community college students.

Fort Lee-based Wicked Fashions made $350 million in 2005, but David Khym, who came to America in 1974 at age 19, began his business with a few stores selling teen and "urban" wear in East New York.

The scholarships are a way of giving back to the communities that helped him build his business, said Young Man Kim, a trustee of the Khym Foundation.

"As a first-generation immigrant, and when he was in big difficulties, he enjoyed big support from local communities, such as the African-American community and others," said Kim. "So he's trying to return some of the help he gained to the community and to their continuing education."

The scholarships were awarded based on academic merit. As many UCC students are immigrants or first-generation Americans, UCC's Khym scholarship recipients span the globe, from a native New Jerseyan to the son of Haitian immigrants.

The average UCC tuition is $2,200, so the scholarships are virtually a full ride, said Louise Yohalem, UCC executive director of development.

"One of the reasons people don't complete their education is if you have to work and you have to go to school, it's very hard to keep at it. Sometimes it just gets to be too much," said Yohalem. "A scholarship like this makes a huge difference for our students."

Jason Darote, a 20-year-old Maplewood resident majoring in marketing at UCC, went from working as a golf course caddy in previous years to an internship at a Jersey City investment bank this past summer.

But with a mother who cannot work and a father who works as a taxi driver at Newark International Airport, Darote worried about how he would pay for his last two years at UCC. The Khym scholarship let him put those worries aside and focus on his goals of graduating from college and opening an advertising agency.

"I don't want to be worried (about money)," Darote said. "I just want to worry about my education." In addition to Watt-Barriffe and Darote, Adriana Amaya, Kimberly Birofka and Paul Elangwe also received scholarships from the Khym Foundation. The Khyms hope to eventually build their foundation's endowment to $10 million and double the number of scholarships they award, Kim said.

Though Watt-Barriffe is grateful to the "wonderful company" that helped her finish college, she is still not likely to fill her closet with Southpole anytime soon, she said.