Kernersville Rotary Club - Map - Rotary International

Alison L. Harris
29 Garden Street
Apt. 504
Cambridge, MA 02138
404-630-4149
Alison_Harris@gse.harvard.edu

August 21,2006

Roy Collette
President, Kernersville Rotary Club
P.O. Box 525
Kernersville, NC 27285

Dear Mr. Collette:

Thank you very much for providing me with the Kernersville Rotary Club Scholarship. I was a recipient of the scholarship in 2002 as a graduating senior at R.B. Glenn High School in Kernersville, North Carolina. Upon graduating from high school, it was my dream to attend Spelman College and one day become a Spelman Woman. Now, four years later, I am just that. I graduated Cum Lade in May with a class of more than 500 women.

When I arrived at Spelman, I chose English as my major because I was always very good at writing and I enjoyed public speaking. I wanted to combine my interest in speaking with my love for people by becoming a news broadcaster. However, continuing my community service efforts from high school as a Crosby Scholar and a member of Top Teens of America, Inc., I realized that my real passion lied within working with disadvantaged youth and urban education.

Attending Spelman College has been the best decision that I have made in my life thus far. Having just graduated in-May, I often reflect on the academic, personal, and professional growth that I have gained in the past four years. Spelman is the kind of place that a student can call home, because it grooms young women for what they will face in larger society and the future. My time at Spelman has afforded me many opportunities.

As a freshman, I mentored and tutored inner-city high school students at the West End Academy Performance Learning Center. As a sophomore, I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama with the Bonner Scholars Program to restore the Birmingham AIDS Center. During my junior year, I attended Stanford University on the Domestic Exchange program and conducted research on urban educational issues with top professors. In my senior year, I researched the implications of African-American literature on high school students' identity development for my senior honors thesis. While these are only a few of my many experiences, it is clear that Spelman College makes it their business to empower the total person of African-American women so that we can go out and be change agents in the world today.

In just a few weeks, I will be relocating to Cambridge, Massachusetts to pursue a Master's in Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education with a focus on Risk and Prevention in Adolescents. I have no doubt that I will gain valuable professional and research skills in my field so that I can effectively make a difference in the world of urban education. Ultimately, I would like to be a Superintendent of an urban district or an Executive Director of a nonprofit that works directly with urban youth.

I really appreciate your generous scholarship support. It has helped me greatly by allowing me to concentrate more on schoolwork and various opportunities without having to worry about finances. I would not be as far along in my education without your support. I do hope that you will continue to provide the Kernersville Rotary Club Scholarship so that students like myself will be afforded the opportunity to pursue a higher education. Again, I am very grateful for your contribution

Sincerely,

Alison L. Harris
B.A. English I Spelman College C'O6
Ed.M. Student | Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Rotary Club of Kernersville, NC