This year, our Scholarship and Career Awards Program celebrated three proud decades of rewarding academic excellence and helping young people realize their dreams. This long-standing Lighthouse tradition brings to life the "heart and soul" of our mission perhaps more than any other event during the year.
Scholarship winners, from left: James Baker, Miranda Hitzemann, Ryan Fay, Ashley Brow and Muhammad Javed (Ashley Townsend is not pictured)
Sponsored by our Women's Committee, and supported by a growing number of visionary donors, this program recognizes a handful of students for their stellar achievements -- and inspires many more to strive for success.
Most of this year's recipients share the same goal: helping others. They have overcome many obstacles in their own lives and want to see these same barriers removed for others.
College-Bound Award, James Baker James strives to combat stereotypes about blindness by becoming a positive role model. "A loss of sight; never a loss of vision," exemplifies his philosophy; his spirit and work ethic have not been dampened by vision impairment, but rather fueled by it. Armed with a perfect score on his Math SATs, James is now a freshman at the University of Rochester -- and on his way to earning a doctorate in chemical engineering.
Undergraduate Award, Ashley Brow The first in her family to attend college, Ashley is majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson College in Boston. A straight-A student, she plans to pursue a Master's degree to give a voice to people who cannot communicate so they can be understood. She chose this major despite being told by an advisor that it would be "too difficult" for someone who is blind. She quickly overturned that assertion; Ashley is a top student in her major, as well as one of the top performers at Emerson with a 3.98 grade point average.
Trinka Davis Graduate Award, Miranda Hitzemann A graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Miranda is studying urban spatial analytics, which taps into geographic information systems to solve city planning problems. She embarked on this path after vision loss halted her architecture career. Rather than accept the loss of one pursuit, Miranda was driven to find a new one that not only drew on her background, but also promised a bright future; she wants to create sustainable, accessible communities that can meet the needs of people living at any income level -- and with any degree of disability.
Judy Van Nostrand Arts Award, Ashley Townsend Music is Ashley's passion, and her talent has been recognized through many young artist and performing arts award programs in her home state of Florida. She also received national recognition with the "Yes I Can Award" from the Council for Exceptional Children. A freshman at Florida State University's School of Music, she plans to double major in vocal performance and music therapy to help children with disabilities pursue the arts. Her goal is to help others -- no matter what challenges they may face -- through music.
Harry G. Starr Endowed Scholarship, Ryan Fay A Dean's List student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Ryan is studying computer engineering. He's also learning Japanese in the hope of ultimately working for one of Japan's leading robotics or electronics programming companies. Equally inspired by the arts, Ryan is dedicated to refining his classical piano technique as a student in the Hopkins' Peabody Conservatory piano performance program.
Syde Hurdus President's Award, Muhammad Javed As the winner of this scholarship, which goes to a participant of the Lighthouse Summer Youth Transition Program at Columbia University, Muhammad describes his loss of a vision as a "colossal obstacle that I am proud to have never backed down from." While a high school student with a stellar 4.0 grade point average, Muhammad was a semifinalist in The New York Times Scholar Program, and entered the prestigious national Intel Science Talent Search. Now a freshman at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College, Muhammad is not yet sure of his major -- but envisions a career devoted to helping others with vision loss.
To help other accomplished young people realize their dreams through our Scholarships and Career Awards Program, please call (212) 821-9318.
