From left, Maimouna, Soma Golden Behr, Tevin, Mylasha, Prince, Esthefany, David, and Melanie Rosen Brooks.

Photo by Marvin Orellana

2010 Scholars

There are the members of Scholarship Plus's first class:

When his parents emigrated from Ghana, Prince stayed behind with his grandmother, enrolled in a good school and excelled there. When he came to the States he dazzled his teachers at Frederick Douglass Academy in Manhattan; one called him "unequivocally the best student that I have ever taught." At Harvard, he is a copy editor for the Harvard College Math Review, and he is active in a Christian fellowship. His goal is to become a neurosurgeon, and to that end, he has been part of a summer program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, working with a renowned spine surgeon.     

Esthefany found that one of her first hurdles after coming to the United States from the Dominican Republic was getting out of English as a Second Language courses as quickly as possible. Once she had done so, she excelled. She attended Manhattan Center for Science and Math where her AP History teacher, called her "one of the most diversely accomplished students I have taught in 13 years." Esthefany is attends Wesleyan University, intending to major in Sociology. She is passionate about issues that affect underserved communities and women, such as education and health care, and plans to pursue a career in either law or medicine. She has done summer internship at the New York Women's Foundation.  

Maimouna came here at 16 from Senegal. Her father, who had preceded her, became a cab driver here while pursuing a bachelor's degree and providing for his family. (He is now going for a graduate degree.) Maimouna worked hard, especially to learn English at Manhattan Comprehensive Day and Night High School, which focuses on helping new immigrants. She is studying at Mount Holyoke, where she is active in the Muslim Student Association and a multicultural faith group. She has interned at the Lighthouse International Special Needs Youth Transition Program.      

Mylasha graduated from Manhattan's Murry Bergtraum High School as class valedictorian. She earned a 4.0 academic average, while volunteering to work with Iraq veterans and patients at Montefiore Hospital. She is studying at Smith, where her activities include an HIV/AIDS awareness group, the Black Student Association and a quilting committee. She is on the dean's list and is in the top ten percent of her class, and was chosen to be part of the Smith group at a biomedical conference at Harvard.  She aspires to work in the criminal justice system, perhaps as a lawyer. She has been a summer intern in the legal department of Marsh & McLennan.

Tevin excelled at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Manhattan, winning a citywide contest that resulted in a trip to South Africa and a meeting with Nelson Mandela. His efforts in another endeavor won him a trip to South Korea. Tevin moved back to New York from Jamaica when he was in second grade. He is studying at Brown, where he is developing his interest in economics and is a publicity strategist for a student-run organization called MainGreen.TV, which produces video profiles for a web site about Brown artists and entrepreneurs. He has had a summer internship doing client research for The Rickman Group, a management consulting firm in Providence. 

David came here from Ghana a decade ago with his parents and older sisters. His mother died soon afterward, and later his father became seriously ill. A student leader at Eleanor Roosevelt, he focused on academics and athletics, excelling at both. In the summer after his high school graduation he had an internship at Rockefeller University. At Duke, he is studying in preparation for a medical career. He has participated in a six-week Duke in Ghana summer study program.