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Stevenson School senior Michelle Henaku has received a full-ride scholarship to Columbia University through the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship. Henaku is among 2,627 students who received the scholarship, from a pool of over 25,000 applicants.
The scholarship, founded in 1994, works to partner high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with top-ranking universities they may otherwise not have applied to. The scholarship will provide Henaku with a comprehensive financial aid package that covers the full cost of attendance at Columbia.
“I am incredibly grateful to have received this opportunity because I know how rare it is and every day I wake up, it feels like a dream – because this was my dream,” said Henaku, who came to Stevenson from Chicago. When applying to colleges, Henaku’s two criteria were that it preferably be in New York City and that she be surrounded by passionate, intellectually curious peers. “Columbia fit that, and I am glad they (also) saw me as a fit.”
The scholarship was originally birthed as a five-week residential summer program for high school juniors from low-income families to experience day-to-day life at top colleges.
Over the five weeks, founders Ana Rowena Mallari and Michael McCullough “saw the immense, untapped potential in bright, motivated students from low-income backgrounds” according to the Questbridge website. Since 2004, the scholarship has gained 52 college partners and served over 100,000 students.
“It’s rare, in my experience, to find a teenager who is so brilliant and not just want to do well in class, but (want) sustained, deep growing love of learning just for learning’s sake,” said Isa Aguirre, English Department faculty member and Stevenson’s Co-Director of Equity and Inclusion.
On an East Coast College Tour program, Henaku fell in love with New York. She soon realized “I could not see myself anywhere but New York City, so that was the dream.” Coupled with the magic of being in the city, Columbia’s first-year Core Curriculum resonated with her “as someone who really enjoyed the junior year core U.S. history and literature curriculum at Stevenson.
“I have always wanted to expand my knowledge about pertinent culture, whether that be through books, art, history and more which is something that Columbia aims to instill in all their students through the Core Curriculum,” she said.
Henaku’s junior year was immeasurable in the ways it shaped her as a scholar, she said. “I had never been as intellectually curious as I was in my junior year when I was enrolled in U.S. History with Mr. Bates and English 3 with Dr. Hiles,” said Henaku. “The intersection of American history and literature in the junior year curriculum, and I am biased because these are my two favorite subjects, showed me what it means to be truly passionate and curious about a subject and the joy that comes with that.”
“She would make observations that were mind-blowing to me,” said Aguirre, of teaching Henaku in her freshman English class. “In future English classes, I would cite her … she’s not just a delight to teach but makes you a better teacher.”
Her discovered passion for the two subjects has led Henaku to be interested in political science as a major and future career field. At Stevenson, she realized that history has a “tendency to provide context to whatever’s going on in the world.” She has since found “political science to be the avenue between just learning and applying that in a way that suits me in the real world.”
Along with her academic achievements, Henaku has spent her time at Stevenson learning how to be a leader. As an affinity group leader in the school’s Black Student Union, her main goal in this role is “to create experiences where younger Black students feel like they have the space to be authentically themselves,” she said. “I do this by centering joy, empowerment, and belonging in our meetings … it has been a very healing and rewarding part of my Stevenson journey.”
Henaku’s leadership skills in the classroom and through the Black Student Union are part of what makes her invaluable to the culture at Stevenson, according to Aguirre. “She brings that same kind of brilliance (and) warmth … she has that capacity and skillset in so many realms. It’s not just an academic strength, it’s a permanent strength in all spaces she’s in.”
With her time at Stevenson coming to an end in a few months, Henaku is reflecting on her journey at the school, specifically her junior year, and the opportunities it has awarded her.
“Although this period of my life was so recent and unfolded over just one year,” said Henaku, “it has defined me so profoundly, as both a student and person, that sometimes I can’t even remember who I was before it.”
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