JCYC is excited to announce our 2021 JCYC Scholarship Program winners! Thanks to the generous support JCYC received from our 2020 SF Aloha Run for Black Lives, we are able to continue shaping the lives of our outstanding middle and high school youth participants, by making the dream of a college degree a reality. We are proud to award college scholarship funding through the JCYC Scholarship Program for our 22 General Scholarship Program winners and 15 Thomatra Scott Scholarship Fund winners! These combined 37 scholarships, which make up our 2021 JCYC Scholarship Program, were awarded based on academic achievement, community involvement, and financial need of our outstanding youth participants.
JCYC’s decision to establish the JCYC Scholarship Program in 2016 was motivated by the unfortunate reality that the cost of attending college continues to be a major barrier for students, particularly those from low-income households who are hoping to be the first from their family to attend college. Also, due to the unfortunate financial and social barriers JCYC’s Black youth participants continue to face today, JCYC’s Inaugural Thomatra Scott Scholarship Fund, which is now an integral part of the JCYC Scholarship Program, is JCYC’s act of solidarity to help bridge the gap, lower the barriers, and create equal opportunity for our outstanding Black youth participants who are pursuing a college degree. This scholarship funding will help lower the financial barrier of attending college (e.g. books, room and board, tuition, and beyond) and will allow our scholarship winners to establish firm grounding on their path to a college degree by not needing to find paid work during their first semester or year in college.
JCYC hopes to continue expanding these scholarship programs through funds raised from our upcoming 2021 SF Aloha Run for Solidarity – the in-person event will take place on Sunday, October 17th at Crissy Field in San Francisco and the virtual side is from Sunday, October 17th through Sunday, October 24th from any US or international location. Please register for our 2021 SF Aloha Run for Solidarity here https://raceroster.com/events/2021/49814/sf-aloha-run-for-solidarity, and create a running-walking team and fundraise to help us raise funds for our 2022 JCYC General Scholarship Program and Thomatra Scott Scholarship Fund!
Meet our 2021 JCYC Scholarship Program winners below, and meet a few of our winners by checking out our winner profiles, which are included in this Up Close article!
2021 JCYC Scholarship Program Winners
General Scholarship – High School Recipients
Siyani Bell, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program & San Francisco YouthWorks, Gateway High School
Maceo Carney, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program & San Francisco YouthWorks, Jefferson High School
Rafael Cenzano, Asian Youth Prevention Services, Japantown Youth Leaders, & Tomodachi Summer Program, Lowell High School
Pamela Cruz, San Francisco College Access Center, George Washington High School
Mia Gibb, Educational Talent Search & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Phillip & Sala Burton High School
Wendy Huang, Upward Bound & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Balboa High School
Wendy Lam, Educational Talent Search, Balboa High School
May Li, Educational Talent Search & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Phillip & Sala Burton High School
Yinghao Thomas Lin, Educational Talent Search, Galileo High School
Andrew Lin, Educational Talent Search, George Washington High School
Kelvin Mejia De Paz, San Francisco College Access Center, Mission High School
Jaime Robles Jr., Educational Talent Search & San Francisco College Access Center, Jefferson High School
Dejohn Thompson, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program & San Francisco YouthWorks, Gateway High School
Ana Villareal, Upward Bound & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Mission High School
Daisa Watkins, San Francisco YouthWorks, City Arts & Technology High School
Zhiyan Wei, Upward Bound, Thurgood Marshall High School Caiyan Yang, Upward Bound & San Francisco YouthWorks, Galileo High School
General Scholarship – 529 Recipients
Kenneth Barron, Educational Talent Search, James Denman Middle School
Francesca Jayne Legaspi, Educational Talent Search, T.R. Pollicita Middle School
Dereck Quezada, Educational Talent Search, James Denman Middle School
Zen Wold, Educational Talent Search, Roosevelt Middle School
Nicholas Walters, Educational Talent Search, Aptos Middle School
Thomatra Scott Scholarship – Graduating Senior Recipients
Maylee Brigham, San Francisco YouthWorks, Jefferson High School
Maceo Carney, San Francisco YouthWorks & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Jefferson High School
Ava Clark, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Gateway High School
Aaliyah Evans, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program & San Francisco YouthWorks, Leadership High School
Maeket Gebersamuel, San Francisco YouthWorks & Educational Talent Search, Galileo High School
Samir Hooker, San Francisco YouthWorks, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
Ahlaya Martin, San Francisco YouthWorks & Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Gateway High School
Daisa Watkins, San Francisco YouthWorks, City Arts & Tech High School
Messiah Williams, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Raoul Wallenberg High School
Thomatra Scott Scholarship – 529 Recipients
Jalliah Butler, Educational Talent Search, Phillip & Sala Burton High School
Andrew Davis, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, George Washington High School
Gianna Posey, Educational Talent Search, James Denman Middle School
Zion Sharpe, San Francisco College Access Center, Aptos Middle School
Isabella Tucker, Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program, Gateway High School Aniah Whitley, Educational Talent Search, James Denman Middle School
To learn more about the JCYC Scholarship Program, please contact JCYC Human Resources Manager Emily Thayer at ethayer@jcyc.org or JCYC’s Black Equity Task Force at blackequitytaskforce@jcyc.org. Also, for more information on this year’s SF Aloha Run for Solidarity, please contact JCYC Development Manager Tony Jenks at tjenks@jcyc.org or get your registration and fundraising started here https://raceroster.com/events/2021/49814/sf-aloha-run-for-solidarity.
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