Bryn Mawr-bound with a full scholarship!

Last week, we learned the appalling lengths some are willing to go to ensure their children get accepted into top colleges.

We published an opinion piece in The News Journal noting that we should be more “outraged that our society has accepted that low-income students should have to hurdle endless obstacles to pursue their college dreams.”

TeenSHARP senior Siawaa Antwi’s story provides a prime example of the mountains certain students need to move in pursuit of higher education. While many students are waiting on admissions results over the next several weeks, Siawaa learned in January that she will be attending Bryn Mawr College (34% acceptance rate) on a full scholarship!

A student at Freire Charter School in Wilmington, Siawaa’s family was featured in The News Journal’s story last year on school funding challenges in Delaware.

Siawaa has experienced significant challenges and has responded to these struggles by becoming a fierce advocate for increased support for mental health and trauma in schools. At a school funding summit last year, Siawaa shared:

“My mother instilled in me the importance of doing well in school at a very young age so maintaining a spot at the top of my class hasn’t been much of a problem until high school. Now, it wasn’t because of the increased rigor in high school. It was a function of the extreme stress I needed to shoulder…. But unlike my time at Central, where there was a counselor, I didn’t have that person in other schools I attended who could really help me. So like many other students, I have been left to pick up the pieces myself when life felt like a hurricane.”

As someone who has experienced housing insecurity since 2012, Siawaa recently partnered with another TeenSHARP student (Jah’Sima Cooper) with similar experiences to pitch the business concept Ikigai (Japanese for ‘a reason for being’) at the University of Delaware Horn Program’s Diamond Challenge. Ikigai is intended to provide improved housing and support options for families dealing with homelessness.

Siawaa’s team was selected for the final round in April. We fully expect her to excel in the next round of the competition just like she will excel when she begins at Bryn Mawr in the fall. It will not be without challenge.

But Siawaa is a force and a fighter. And we look forward to continuing to support her fight to clear the hurdles for so many other students and families.