Mentorship Makes a Difference

We have had the opportunity to keep in touch with and mentor some of our past Scholarship Award Winners. Check out their testimonies and career updates below!

“I never would have thought this scholarship would have allowed me to have the opportunity to have amazing mentors and guidance and support throughout college. The support of Be the Difference Team has been extremely helpful for me throughout my college experience thus far.”

~Alondra Muñoz

Alexus McGriff

Hi, my name is Alondra Munoz Sandoval, I am a sophomore at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville Tennessee, double majoring in Human and Organizational Development (HOD) and Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS) with a minor in psychology. I graduated from Vero Beach Highschool in 2021 and I was a recipient of the R. Morgan Leadership Award which helped further support my higher education experience. Growing up in Gifford, FL resources were limited and opportunities seemed scarce but I knew continuing to go to school every day would turn into a way out for me. If I worked hard, got good grades, and helped others, good things would happen. Being a first-generation Latina, college was never on my radar. I honestly did not know how to get into college until my junior year in high school when I realized there was something called the SAT or ACT. I always thought you go to college when you get a letter from colleges based on your high school grades, so colleges reach out to you. I did not know there was a process for applying, what a loan was, dorms, or how to pay for college. Once I quickly learned that it was all dependent on myself, I was on a timeline of 5 months before everything was due. I applied to every college and scholarship that were available to me because I knew I wanted to go to college even if I wasn’t sure how I would pay for it but either way, I was going. The R. Morgan Leadership Award was one of these scholarships I applied to and I am forever grateful to have been awarded this one. I never would have thought this scholarship would have allowed me to have the opportunity to have amazing mentors and guidance and support throughout college. The support of Be the Difference Team has been extremely helpful for me throughout my college experience thus far. During freshman year when I did not know what to expect, how to make new friends, prepare for interviews, apply for opportunities, budget expenses, or how to manage my time efficiently. Luckily I did not have much trouble with doing any of this thankfully because of Alexus, Jasmine, and Kyra who were there to help. They scheduled meetings with me to chat and catch up amidst all of their busy schedules and provided me with the support and guidance I needed. The Be the Difference Team has been so helpful in preparation for obtaining career opportunities. Shortly after elaborating with the team about my resume and how to polish it with the new template they emailed me, I landed my first job as a student equipment manager for the Vanderbilt Football team. I was able to travel with the team to Hawaii for a week and assist alongside the sidelines all season as we compete in the SEC conference. One other experience I will have the opportunity to participate in during the summer of 2023, is Vanderbilt’s Summer Business Immersion Experience at the Owen’s Graduate School of Business. I am extremely excited to be working with organizations such as NASCAR to work with other college students around the U.S. on consulting projects. I have also obtained a fellowship at JPMorgan Chase & Co. for the summer of 2023 where I will be working as a Commercial Banking Innovation and Development Program Analyst in New York City and Palo Alto, California. I am so excited and cannot wait to see what the future holds! These are just a few of the highlights from my college experience and I can confidently say that I would not have been able to afford all of these new endeavors without the help of the R. Morgan Leadership Award and The Be the Difference team. This scholarship has financially supported my attendance in college and has allowed me to participate in so many diverse experiences. I have been able to apply to so many great programs such as the ones mentioned above because of the financial and educational support this scholarship has provided. Thank you for all of your contributions to this amazing program and I hope that one day I can give back to this community just as much as it has poured into me. I am very appreciative that this team believed in me and I hope to be able to continue to pay it forward one day and to continue to create a pathway for the young leaders in the near future.

“I am really happy to have gotten access to all these opportunities through Georgetown which Be the Difference helped make a possibility through its scholarship. I am so thankful to everyone on the Be the Difference team!”

~ Ethan Campbell

Ethan

Since getting to school, I've been pretty busy with lots of extracurriculars and this internship in the DC area. Since coming to Georgetown, I have gotten involved in the school's investment fund, where we manage +1M of Georgetown's endowment; the entirely student-run credit union, the microfinance initiative, and an intercollegiate investing club with 8 other schools (Harvard, MIT, Penn, NYU, LSE, and a few others). For my internship, I am working with a recent HBS grad at his search fund which is a private-equity adjacent business acquisition. All in all, I am really happy to have gotten access to all these opportunities through Georgetown which Be the Difference helped make a possibility through its scholarship. I am so thankful to everyone on the team!

“I am so grateful for the financial support I have received from you all! Thank you for everything, and for checking in.”

~Emily Olsson

Emily

I am loving my college and the experience I have gotten so far. I have added a minor of American Sign Language in addition to my major in Acting. I have also joined many organizations. My favorite organization that I have been apart of so far at school has been “the Prism Project”. Here I work with students with special needs in developing a theatre performance of their own creation! It ends with a show for friends and family, and it was such a wonderful experience. I am also involved in Dance Marathon in the Morale committee, where we raise money for children at Riley’s Hospital for Children in Indiana. Lastly, I am involved in some theatre based clubs, such as a playbook club and a club called AFI (Artists for Inclusivity). I have recently been cast as the lead in the musical in the fall, so I am very excited to be working on that soon. Last year I was cast in the play Our Town, and the play Sweat. I have been very grateful with the opportunities that I have been given at school and I am truly learning so much. I am so grateful for the financial support I have received from you all! Thank you for everything, and for checking in.

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