Sharon’s Story

“Akili Dada not only gave me the calm to fully concentrate on my studies but also helped me realize there is a world around me that needs me.”
– Sharon, Akili Dada scholar currently attending Vassar College

Early in 2010, Sharon, an Akili Dada scholar, was faced with a life-altering decision to make: a choice between three full scholarship offers at top private liberal arts colleges in the U.S., or a full scholarship to medical school in Kenya.

Sharon’s choices this year were in stark contrast to the disheartening options that stood before her four years ago. Before she became an Akili Dada scholar, Sharon was on the verge of dropping out of high school, as her hard-pressed single mother could no longer afford to pay her tuition — despite her stellar academic performance. Sharon recalls “the constant reminder that it might be my last term in school because there was no guarantee that there would be school fees for the next term.”

Then Akili Dada came along, with a full scholarship, personalized mentoring, and our leadership training program. In Sharon’s words, Akili Dada “not only gave me the calm to fully concentrate on my studies but also helped me realize there is a world around me that needs me.”  Required to pay it forward, she recalls, “I mentored other girls from a financially disadvantaged background just as successful women who I met in the annual Akili Dada mentoring conference were mentoring me.”

Because of the investments that Akili Dada made in Sharon’s education, she emerged one of the top high school graduates in the whole country and has since travelled to the U.S. to pursue a degree in Neuroscience and Behavior at Vassar College. She has also joined our leadership team as the alumna representative to the board and become a vital voice representing our scholars and alumnae within Akili Dada’s decision-making processes.

For Sharon, giving back has become an integral part of her life, and already in her first semester at Vassar she began making investments in her new local community in upstate New York. She writes, “every time I spend time with girls at Poughkeepsie high school I take pride in trying to show them that being poor does not necessarily mean [being] undignified. I know this because everyone in Akili Dada has modeled it to me.”