Awardees Stories
Meet Our 2024 Scholarship Recipients
Iyannah Jones is one of the two Anthony & Marcia Baker scholarship recipients for 2024 and says "I believe in the power of education and it's abilities to decrease mental health issues and promote understanding and acceptance because knowledge is power. I advocate for integrating mental health into the academic curriculum"
Referring to the scholarship award she says "I am a first generation student coming from a single household family and will be attending an out of state HBCU. Being awarded this scholarship means the world to me because it’s one step closer to not having financial anxiety. I’ve been having doubts about how I will pay for the summer program and then a separate fee for the tuition but after finding out I was awarded this scholarship, I can sleep comfortably"
Serena Mair is one of two Anthony and Marcia Baker scholarship recipients for 2024. Serena spent much of her childhood on the shores of Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, one of Jamaica’s 14 parishes. "I spent my childhood summers obsessing over the complex ideals of poetry whilst attempting to create sandcastles."
Referring to the scholarship:
“I am an incoming honors freshman at Nova Southeastern University double majoring in Medical Humanities and Public Health with an Experiential Leadership minor. As a scholarship recipient within my institution's leadership department and an early admit into the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine's Master's in Public Health Degree Program, I hold a keen interest in women's health and aim to utilize my writing skills to improve black maternal health to lower mortality rates. I aspire to research in the academia setting to better understand the impact of cultural practices and the gender bias in biomedical sciences on the postpartum conditions of black women. With aspirations to engage in undergraduate women's and public health research, the Anthony and Marcia Baker scholarship allows me the ability to better enhance my collegiate education without the financial constraints of tuition costs. Additionally, as a 2024 recipient, I look forward to giving back to my South Floridian community by starting a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the health and legal support of minority women facing medical malpractice. As a Jamaican poet, the Partners for Youth Foundation opens paths for me to write not from mere fiction and imagination, but to write fonts of change, virtue, and integrity with the quill of justice and the ink of the law.”