Young Scholars Lauded For Tenacity

Whether from Accra, Ghana, or Springfield, Mass., the Ron Brown Scholarship winners all took winding paths to the Harvard Coop.

On the third floor of the bookstore yesterday afternoon, the scholarship winners spoke of the racial discrimination, financial hardships, and other challenges they faced prior to college.

The $40,000 Ron Brown Scholarships honor exceptionally motivated and academically accomplished African American high school seniors.

Winners provided a snapshot of their individual journeys in an anthology of essays bound in the hard-cover book, “I Have Risen,” which went on sale in late March.

The book comes 10 years after the establishment of the scholarship in memory of the late Ron Brown, the first African American to serve as secretary of commerce and Democratic National Committee chair.

Brown died in April 1996 aboard a military plane that crashed in Croatia.

More than 160 students have won the scholarship in the decade since it was created.

Tracy T. “Ty” Moore II ’06, a current scholar, remarked that the student essayists demonstrate that “it is possible to triumph in the midst of harsh circumstances.”

The purpose of the event, according to Ellen T. Yiadom ‘06, coordinator and current scholar, was “to share these interesting and inspiring stories with Harvard and the surrounding community.”

The Ghanaian-born Yiadom came to the United States at age seven and settled in Chicago. Now a Lowell House resident, she is set to graduate with a government degree next month.

MIT student Delbert A. Green II, who raised $50,000 while in high school to study kidney stones, spoke about his childhood in a dangerous section of Opelousas, La.

Miles A. Johnson ’08, a social studies concentrator, spoke of going to Cuba on a high school academic program—an experience that transformed his views on race relations. In Cuba, he said, “there’s no sharp division” between blacks and whites.

The students also signed books for the intimate crowd after their speeches.

“There was something at the core of each essay which is the same regardless of circumstances,” Green said.

The scholars said they remain committed to fostering the social change that they envisioned in high school.

Although Ron Brown Scholarship winners tend to matriculate at universities across the country, a contingent consistently heads to Cambridge. At least two Ron Brown scholars will join Harvard’s Class of 2010.

In addition to Johnson and Yiadom, current Harvard undergraduates featured in the book include Immanuel R, Foster ‘06-’07, Kelly L. Lee ‘07, Julian D. Miller ‘07, Alexandra C. Wood ‘07, Kareemah L. Sabur ‘08, and Preston S. Copeland ‘09.

Coop officials said that they were pleased to host the event and have prominently displayed “I Have Risen,” since it first went on sale earlier this semester.