By Virginia E. Carter

Hove attended school in Zimbabwe for the structure it provided. "Education was really a by-product," he said.

Aug. 13, 2003 -- Good fortune came to Luckson Hove this spring when he was named the winner of a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship.

Hove, who will enter U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce this month as a transfer student from Piedmont Virginia Community College, was one of only 15 transfer students nationwide to receive the prestigious scholarship, which funds tuition, room and board, fees and books.

A native of Zimbabwe, Hove grew up knowing more bad fortune than good.

Abandoned by his divorced parents and turned out on the streets by the family with whom he lived until age 5, he was homeless for most of his youth. Despite the poverty and prevalence of abuse, drugs and crime on the streets, Hove managed to survive and to stay in school with virtually no help from others. No one at school knew where he went home at night or why he always wore the same T-shirt and shorts.

"I went to school more for the interaction with others – to be around people who lived normal lives," said Hove. "Education was really a by-product."

Hove and his wife, Mary Makumba-Hove, came to the United States from Zimbabwe in the fall of 2000. They knew no one except the staff at the Charlottesville Omni, where Mary had been offered an internship in hotel management.

Now 29, Hove has come to embrace education as a central value in his life. He majored in business administration at PVCC, where he earned a near-perfect grade-point-average and worked as a teaching assistant in the accounting lab. He plans to continue his accounting studies at the McIntire School and eventually hopes to earn a graduate degree.

Hove credits his faith and his wife in helping him succeed. Mary, he says, was only the second person with whom he shared the story of his homelessness and abandonment (the first person was an adoptive mother).

One step at a time, through their own resourcefulness and the support of people they have met in the community, the two have found opportunities they never could have imagined in their impoverished homeland. Hove cites stories of strangers who have offered advice (they first learned of PVCC from a fellow passenger on the local trolley during their first visit to Charlottesville), administrators at PVCC who have loaned them money on a short-term basis, and members of their local church who have provided support. Now parents of a 15-month-old son, Thelorse (short for "The Lord Sees"), who has special medical needs, the couple continues to meet challenges.

Hove and his wife share one ultimate goal: to help others, not only in their native country, but also throughout the world. They plan to start their own nonprofit organization, possibly headquartered in the United States, to help children, especially those who have been orphaned as a result of losing both parents to AIDS.

Despite his interest in accounting, Hove says he won’t really be focused on numbers in running the nonprofit.

"To invest in the future of troubled children, there's no better dividend to be paid. If we can make just one life just a little better, it will be worthwhile."