By Ruth Steinhardt
Jasmine Vicencio only met incoming George Washington University freshman Nathan Hanshew recently. But she already has taken him under her wing, and on Sunday night she had some big-sisterly advice.
“Get all your prerequisites out of the way early,” she told Mr. Hanshew, who nodded, looking slightly awed. “Run your requirements by me—I’ll give you my email—and I can help you figure out which classes to take.
“But no pressure. Most of all, your first year, relax!” she added, smiling.
Mr. Hanshew is one of the newest additions to what Ms. Vicencio, who graduated from GW in 2015, calls her “family”: recipients of the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarship, which pays all costs of a GW education for Washington, D.C., public school students.
Sunday night marked the annual SJT Scholars Senior Recognition Ceremony. The event offers SJT scholars in the class of 2016 a chance to reflect on their undergrad years and to be applauded by their classmates, teachers, fellow scholars and loved ones before Commencement.
Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Forrest Maltzman spoke, as did Mr. Trachtenberg.
“Of the many things you get to do as a university president, setting up this scholarship is one that makes me proudest,” Mr. Trachtenberg said.
Dean of Admissions Karen Stroud Felton said that administering the scholarships has been one of the most “special and fulfilling” parts of her time at GW.
“Proud seems such a small word,” she said. “But I’m so proud of how [the SJT scholars] have maximized their time in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. They’re well prepared for success, and they’re going to change the world. I’m just humbled to have had a very small part in their stories.”
The familial theme ran throughout the evening. Event organizer and SJT alumna Sarah Jackson, who will graduate with her master’s degree in geography this month, was celebrated as a “big sister” by younger scholars, while scholarship director George Rice called Ms. Jackson’s baby daughter, Olivia, a “granddaughter” of the program.
Some have found family in each other. In her speech, graduating senior Avonda Fogan thanked her boyfriend, fellow SJT scholar and rising senior Timothy Hursen.
“I didn’t realize the SJT Scholarship Program also helps people find their soul mates,” Ms. Fogan joked.
Ms. Vicencio, who works at the World Bank, returned to the Foggy Bottom Campus to help facilitate the annual event. “We’re definitely family,” she said. “We support each other, we look out for each other. Plus, we’re all from the District. Most GW students aren’t from here.”
At that, junior SJT scholar Joycelynn Kane, who emceed the event, leaned her head on Ms. Vicencio’s shoulder. “I call her my mom,” Ms. Kane said.
Families in the literal sense were also present. They, too, have been brought closer by the scholarship.
Marie Houedou’s daughter, Samantha Brew, will graduate this month with a degree in international affairs. Four years ago, it looked as if she might not be able to attend college at all, Ms. Houedou remembered. Ms. Brew had received a scholarship to a school in Iowa, but the family was unable to send her to school so far away.
“I had $500 in my account,” said Ms. Houedou, an immigrant from Togo. “We had to turn it down. There was no way I could pay for her to travel there or even for a community college program.”
Her accomplished daughter, an academic superstar and champion swimmer, runner and debater who had organized an after-school library program so her high school classmates would have somewhere to study, faced a strong possibility of never achieving her goal of a university education.
“I remember looking up at the ceiling just…,” Ms. Houedou said, shaking her head and remembering feeling helpless.
Then she received a phone call from GW. Her daughter would receive an SJT Scholarship: four years of tuition, room, board and books at a university in the city where she grew up.
“I was crying,” Ms. Houedou recalled. “The only thing I had wanted to do, been able to do, was to get her to someone who could help her. And that was GW.”