Celebrating Remission, Job Offers, and Bright Futures: Updates from our College Scholars
As we reflect on all that we’re grateful for this holiday season, we’d like to take a moment to recognize and celebrate our inspirational College Scholars. Over the last four years, our College Scholars Program has awarded 18 childhood cancer survivors with scholarships to help make their college dreams possible.
With your support, we’ve helped survivors like Isha. She was diagnosed with leukemia in middle school, and we awarded her a scholarship in 2019, her first year of college. Isha suffered a relapse last year but was successfully treated with CAR-T therapy. Despite her medical setback, Isha is on a fast-track to graduate in May - just three years after beginning her undergraduate studies!
Isha’s already accepted a job offer in her chosen field of software engineering, and we couldn’t be more proud of her.
More Updates from Program Alumni:
Amelia, a 2019 Scholar, celebrated five years of remission this summer! She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a college freshman. Today, she works as a Clinical Research Coordinator with the University of Colorado, putting her Masters of Public Health degree to good use. “I’m really grateful for the chance to work on clinical trials, as I know how important they can be for patients with chronic disease, including cancer,” Amelia told us this month.
2021 Scholar Darren is finishing up his first semester of college and just celebrated two years in remission from his leukemia. “I have changed my major to kinesiology at the moment but plan to take an accelerated program at the end of my four years and continue to pursue nursing,” Darren shared with us in a recent update. He is involved in a service organization on campus and working on spreading awareness about the lack of ethnic bone marrow donors - his own biggest challenge, which prolonged his treatment regimen. “Children shouldn’t have to wait months and years for a donor match.”
Victoria - a 2021 Scholar who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer as a freshman in high school and required aggressive brain surgery at the start of her college experience - continues to defy all odds. She is a full-time university student keeping very busy studying neuroscience. She launched a survivorship podcast as part of her Children’s Cancer Cause scholarship, which can be found here. “I’m really pleased with how the podcasts turned out,” Victoria told us after completing the 10-episode first season. “I had my sister read the scripts I wrote; she has a great reading voice. Each episode got a decent amount of listens as well.”
2021 Scholar Kirstie, a survivor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is keeping busy at Florida State University’s College of Medicine. She was recently elected chair of the Hematology/Oncology medical student organization, which has provided her with another way to answer questions and coordinate community events for cancer education. “I plan on becoming a pediatric hematologist/oncologist myself, inspired by my care team and my journey. I want to help other kids overcome their cancer diagnoses with a positive outlook on life,” says Kirstie.
Interested in Applying Next Year?
If you know a childhood cancer survivor who could benefit from an academic scholarship, please share our interest form so they will be among the first to know when our 2022 application is live.
Thank You!
In recognition of the difficulties brought on by the pandemic, we made it a priority to award more scholarships over the past two years than we originally budgeted for. We hope to continue - and build on - this momentum in 2022.
We give special thanks to Cox Charities, which recently awarded us a $5,000 grant in support of our scholarship program. Thanks to the generosity of Cox Virginia employees, Cox Charities awarded grants to 18 nonprofits located in the Virginia area, and we are so honored to be among them! We are grateful and excited for the boost that this grant will give to our scholarship program in 2022.
For as little as $10 a month, you can join our Scholar Boosters and become part of a sustaining network providing ongoing support for our scholarship program.