Becoming One Scholarships Awarded

The Becoming One Community Enrichment and Diversity Center provided scholarships to three Chatham County students on July 28th, 2018 during the inaugural banquet.  Candidates for the scholarship submitted essays on the importance of diversity in their community and the nation.

The Becoming One Scholarship awardees were:

• Mackenzie Parker (“On Being Biracial”)
• Jamia Walton (“Diversity”)
• Vonisha Payne (“Diversity”)

In Parker’s essay, she writes, “Being biracial has also taught me to look at every side of the problem and its solutions.  I have learned to value everyone’s beliefs and to respect them whether or not I agree–even in cases in which others do not take them seriously (because I know what that feels like).

Walton asks the crucial question, “America is known as the melting pot, this is something that I think we should all take pride in.  But what does the really mean?…It means that we are a place that united different cultures and brings together a variety of people from many nations in harmony under our flag…This is something that we should be proud of because the fact that there are people who consider leaving their homes to come to our nation says a lot.”

And Payne offers this advice with her essay, “There are so many things we can learn from others by simply having an open mind when it comes to listening to one another about our background.  We could learn and understand so much if we would just take the time to listen and broaden our way of thinking instead of being judgmental.”

Knowing that there is this kind of thinking in our youth gives our Becoming One Community Enrichment and Diversity Center great hope, as well as a tremendous resource that can help guide us towards achieving our mission.

Congratulations to all our scholarship winners.