The annual Leadership and Empowerment Dinner hosted by the Margaret Rigg Center invited Evelyn Jackson Cowart ’65 as one of three featured speakers. Photos by Ashlyn Porter ’28
Evelyn Jackson Cowart ‘65, Eckerd College’s first African-American graduate, has overcome challenges her entire life.
Her journey to Eckerd started with a knock at the door of her family’s home in St. Petersburg, Florida. A group of women from the Presbyterian Church visited to encourage Cowart to attend Florida Presbyterian College, which is now Eckerd. Her decision to attend FPC was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“I knew I would make a difference in this world,” she said. She would not be denied the opportunity due to her race, and graduated from Florida Presbyterian College in 1965 with an English degree. As Cowart says, the College allowed her to “open doors” she was not meant to pass through.
Cowart told her story as part of a Leadership and Empowerment dinner in the James Center for Molecular and Life Sciences on March 4. The Margaret Rigg Center recruited a powerful panel featuring Cowart; Yova Borovska ’06, a lawyer who is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Florida Bar; and Carolyn Lane, Ph.D., a member of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College.
Cowart’s career spanned from education to aviation, courtesy of the flexibility of liberal arts education at Florida Presbyterian College.
Immigration Attorney Yova Borovska ’06 (left) and educator Carolyn Lane, Ph.D. (right), joined Cowart (center) in speaking to the gathering.
Each woman had a different lens on life and career.
Borovska, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has spent her career working in the immigration field, including offering advice to international students on their options for immigration and attending collegiate seminars to educate students on the topic.
Lane spent a public education career in Tinley Park, Illinois, serving as a superintendent tasked with staff and curriculum development as well as an adviser to an elementary school principal and director of special services. She played an active role in advocating for disabled students, developing inclusionary practices for them.
As for Cowart, Florida Presbyterian College’s first African-American graduate, she became a teacher for both high schoolers and adults after graduation. Later on, she assumed a role as a disability determiner and coordinator of adult education. Then, looking for a change and the opportunity to travel, she decided to apply for a job in the airline industry.
As she had seen at times throughout her life, Cowart was often faced with a feeling of alienation in this new career. But working through that, she landed a number of positions with Delta Airlines that gave her the opportunity to travel the world.
In more recent years, Cowart has dedicated her time to helping to enact social change in her community, working with her late husband, Jesse Cobbs.
“You don’t have to choose between family, or career, or education,” she said to the women in the crowd. “You have so many choices.”
She closed her speech with an expression of gratitude for Florida Presbyterian College and its role in giving her the chance to pursue what seemed, at the time, impossible.
“Thank you, FPC, for allowing me the opportunity to make that difference,” she said.
