Balanced Man Scholarship
Hello all,
I'm writing you about a month after we successfully launched GU | SigEp's first ever Balanced Man Scholarship. After working on getting this going for a few years now, I know I speak for my board and I when I say that it was an incredibly fulfilling experience that grounded us back into being men for others, particularly the Georgetown student body.
From the ground up, this experience was not easy, and I was lucky enough to work with five incredibly passionate brothers. Without their help, this would have never happened, and we would have never met the five amazing students, whose bios you'll find below. We're also lucky enough to have Josiah, our male winner, receive a bid this past Thursday. Luis, the male finalist, plans on rushing in the spring.
The last thing I'd like to say is that this could not have been done without the help of Jeff Wray and Matt Hamblin. Financially, Jeff kept us stable, and I'll be working with him over the next few months to begin constructing the framework for a sustainable dues and BMS fund from all of you, and our ever-expanding alumni network. Matt was a sounding board for ideas and a fantastic resource throughout the process. Thank you both.
Read below about where this money went. These students all come from incredibly diverse backgrounds with stories of empowerment, reminding us in SigEp of the importance of turning back towards the community, given our power as a brotherhood. In talking to the two winners, I was struck by two things. The first was the sheer willpower it had taken both of them, and all of our finalists, to make it to Georgetown. We joke often about our university being a school for the elite, but it really made me take heed of the fact that everyone has a story about how they got here, and often those stories are astounding. The second was the openness with which they were willing to share their lives with me. These two faced hardships throughout their time in elementary school, middle school, and high school, and dealt with problems that many of us never even consider. It was definitely hard for both of them to relive these issues, and tell me, a stranger, their stories. But what I think that shows more than anything else is how much they appreciated this scholarship. This money is doing real, tangible good in our Georgetown community, and is going to people who have a very deep need for it. Seeing how we had impacted them, and the appreciation they held for SigEp, was truly a meaningful experience for me, and made me even more damn proud to be a member of this fraternity. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at (617) 320-6495 or by emailing me at em1...@georgetown.edu.
HFF,
Eric Menna
VP of Recruitment
Finalists
Cheyenne Martin
Cheyenne Martin is from Fly, Tennessee. When she came in to her interview, she described it as 55 minutes outside of Nashville, 65 with traffic. She certainly had a tough go of it, and made an incredible journey to get to Georgetown. Cheyenne’s graduated with a class of 38 kids, and came to Georgetown not knowing when she’d be able to afford to go home again. What impressed us so much about Cheyenne was her resilience; she dealt with the death of relatives and loved ones over and over throughout high school, and handled that grief with grace. She focused on making sure that she could get to Georgetown, and buckled down through the pain to concentrate on academics. Cheyenne is studying Chinese at Georgetown, and is hoping to pursue a career in Intelligence one day as an operational planner for SOCOM or as an analyst.
Luis Canelles
Luis was born in the small coastal town of Puerto Padre in eastern Cuba and lived there until he was 13 years old. He moved to the United States in 2013 right before high school knowing only the basics of the English language. From that moment, he made the decision to work towards achieving the American dream and work diligently to attain his goals. During high school, he focused on excelling in academics so that he could attend a good university. We were most struck by Luis’ drive, and his belief in himself. He had an incredibly difficult journey to make it from Cuba, knowing almost no English, to coming to Georgetown, and we could clearly see that he has a very bright future. Luis showed us over and over again that he was determined to come out of Georgetown as the best person he could be, and we were excited to help him do just that. Luis is hoping to work for an organization like UNICEF or USAID after college, and help others to create better lives for themselves.
Bemnet Assefa
Bemnet Assefa is an incoming freshman from the Seattle area. When we gave her phone call interview back in August, we were immediately amazed at her passion for social justice. She worked full time as a volunteer for the ACLU all throughout high school and still managed to graduate Valedictorian. As an Ethiopian immigrant, Bemnet holds her culture close to her heart, and was proud when we met her to teach us about some aspects of her life that defined who she was. Her balance was shown clearly by her deep interest in social justice, but also a clear understanding that she needs to care for herself throughout college. She is studying International Politics at Georgetown and hopes to pursue social work in some capacity.
Winners
Dorothy “Sherley” Muscade
Sherley Muscade has a deeply moving story, especially in the context of the world today. Sherley grew up in Massachusetts, born to two Haitian parents. Her parents were undocumented immigrants, and growing up, for her family, there was always the undercurrent of fear that someday, the INS would come knocking at their door and take them away. When she was in third grade, that happened. Both Sherley’s mother and father were deported back to Haiti, and she and her sister were left to fend for themselves.
I talked to Sherley about how she dealt with this, and how she felt growing up without her parents around. She told me that at first she told very few people, as she was reticent to receive the stigma surrounding undocumented immigrants. But, once she got to high school, Sherley decided that she was not ashamed of who she was, and she began to advocate for herself, and for her family. It’s hard to imagine the situation that Sherley found herself in; she could only speak to her parents at most once a week, due to the lack of infrastructure in Haiti, and had to rely on herself and her sister for support and guidance. Despite the obstacles in her way, Sherley graduated at the top of her class, and has a resoundingly impressive academic record.
Sherley has carried these experiences with her, to Georgetown, and is looking forward to sharing her story. She is studying in the SFS at Georgetown, and is hoping to pursue a career in immigration law. She is also hoping to join one of our prestigious debate teams while here at Georgetown, as she competed in Mock Trial throughout her time in high school. Sherley’s story is one of triumph and strength in the face of overwhelming adversity, and we were thrilled to help her to purchase her books for this semester. She, like many of the applicants we spoke with, lives on a razor-thin margin, and was absolutely ecstatic to have received this money.
Josiah Laney
Josiah grew up in Northridge, California, a young black man in a predominantly white neighborhood. The kids around him were wealthy and white; he was not. And he felt this, distinctly. Josiah told me about his time growing up, and how he tried to be a chameleon in this society where he felt so out of place. Josiah faced turmoil at home and felt different from the community in which he resided. He saw really no where else to turn but school.
There, Josiah excelled. He became the captain of his track team, the student body president, and an academic standout. At the same time that he was finding all of these successes, however, things at home were not going well. There, he lacked any semblance of stability. His family bounced around, home to home, making it difficult for him to focus on academics. His mom finally did find a job, but the commute was too long for her to remain in Northridge; she moved herself 50 miles away, to be closer to her job, and Josiah was forced to move from one friends’ home to another, carrying his belongings with him for his senior year of high school. And yet, he persevered. He got even more involved in his community, and doubled his efforts in school. Despite all of these trials, Josiah made it here to Georgetown.
We were happy to get to know Josiah during the application process for the BMS, and even happier when he decided to rush SigEp. Josiah got his bid a couple of weeks ago, and it has really been awesome watching him get to know all of the brothers. We’re proud to have been able to give him the help that we could, and damn proud to call him our brother.
