2 Full Scholarships…

Taylar, a senior at Kennesaw Mountain High School (GA), joined our College Planning Cohort program as a rising 9th grader. She has already been offered two full scholarships: The Dovey Johnson Roundtree Class of 38 Presidential Scholarship to Spelman College, and the Board of Trustees Scholarship to Xavier University of Louisiana. She is waiting to hear from other schools, but her hard work has definitively resulted in a cost-free undergraduate degree as she prepares to apply to medical school.

While establishing herself as a top academic student, Taylar was selected as first chair of her middle school band. Upon entering high school, she committed to long hours of practice and began regularly watching YouTube videos of the greatest flautists’ performances and solos. She wanted not only to learn how to master her instrument but to infuse emotion into each melody. Every day she carved out time to practice to perfect her craft and, by the end of the first semester, she was selected as the first chair flute in the Concert Band. The next semester she moved up to the Symphonic Band, and as a sophomore, she joined the Wind Symphony. In her junior year, she was the flute section leader of the marching band and entered her final year of high school as the Woodwind Captain.

Taylar demonstrated deep and emphatic thinking in her response to Spelman College’s prompt, “The Spelman tagline is ‘A Choice to Change the World.’ If you could create meaningful change around one issue in your school, community, or globally, what would it be and how would you approach making this change?”  Taylar provided a comprehensive response in which she identified underage substance abuse as a problem that plagues schools and communities, then she provided a set of strategies to address the problem.

Taylar is an example of a student who embraced our guidance of “be intentional in building your résumé.” Following this guidance resulted in significant and sustained involvement in such activities as:

• Founding LGND (Legend), a nonprofit focused on fundraising for underfunded school programs and creating volunteer opportunities for teens;
• Serving as a tutor for an annual SAT Boot Camp, requiring lesson plan development, facilitating sessions, and providing feedback to assist students in increasing their SAT performance; and
• Became the President of BOND (Black Organization Nurturing Diversity), where she organized Black History Month events, increased awareness of Black history, and scheduled guest speakers, including HBCU admissions advisers and social justice advocates.

Taylar’s leadership across these and other activities, as well as her engagement in meaningful community service, established her as a top candidate for the two highly competitive scholarships that she was offered. Her academic achievement demonstrated to her prospective colleges that she is academically capable; her leadership and service demonstrate that she will bring value to her college community.