Growing up in Brooklyn with the unwavering support of an attentive mother, PowHERful scholar Suki Ferguson excelled in school. “Through my mom,” she says, “I learned the value of perseverance and resourcefulness. I felt empowered to aim high and navigate spaces where resources were abundant, though not always accessible to everyone.” Suki was selected for a highly competitive public high school, an academic environment that sensitized her further to the disparity of opportunities available to different groups. She saw clear evidence that “marginalized communities often have to work twice as hard just to gain entry into these spaces.”….

PowHERful scholars told us they like the word 'Resilience.' They like what it means: Strength that bounces back. And they agree: Resilience is learned the hard way, from experience and from surviving the worst. In college, with so many challenges coming on at once, much of what is learned goes beyond academics. There's a tidal wave of organizational conundrums, financial straits, social stresses, and relationship upsets. Scholars are forced to face their deepest insecurities and weaknesses. Every PowHERful scholar can look back and trace her arduous path to developing resilience; two have generously shared their stories here....

Paw K’mwee is taking things day by day: life, she knows, is unpredictable. Paw saw this as a child, when she was uprooted with her family from Burma by sectarian violence and escaped across the mountains to Thailand. For years, the family lived in a refugee camp. And then one day, when Paw was eleven, she and her family left the camp and came to the U.S. Everything in this country—the environment, the language, the culture—was foreign to them. In every direction lay obstacles to surmount. Paw knew it would take relentless hard work to learn to navigate this new reality….

Today, we’d like to share the passionate, full-hearted letter that Naina wrote to PowHERful’s founder after receiving her diploma:

Dear Soledad O'Brien,

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude for the incredible support provided by your foundation. I recently graduated from the University of Connecticut, an achievement made possible solely through your generous assistance. Coming from a refugee background, the dream of attending college often seemed out of reach….