2022 Women's Empowerment Scholarship Recipients
Brittany Lamar
Brittany is a tireless advocate for human rights, youth justice, and legal policy reforms across state, national, and international levels. With a B.A. in Political Science from UConn, where she is also an MPP & J.D. Candidate, Brittany personifies the power of education as an alum of Yale Law School’s Access to Law Fellowship and a Frederic BastiatFellow of the MercatusCenter at George Mason University.
Rylee Tondora
Rylee ranked third in her high school graduating class and has an interdisciplinary major at Yale University combining aspects of international affairs, human rights, community development, and political science. She ultimately wants to attend law school to specialize in human rights as a vehicle for contributing to immigration reform and lending her voice in support of people who have had their voice unjustly taken.
Diya Patel
Diya is a freshman at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, where she is studying Science, Technology, and International Affairs. Since arriving at Georgetown just a few months ago, she has become involved in tutoring underprivileged high school students in DC and interning at the Olas Foundation, a non-profit that increases access to Spanish education in the United States while also providing economic autonomy to women in Guatemala City.
Casey Raymond
Casey is a freshman in the University of Maine at Augusta’s Aviation program. While earning over a perfect 4.0 GPA and ranking third in her high school class, she was invited to an aviation workshop, where she found her passion. Despite never seeing female pilots, she was not discouraged from confronting the traditional stereotypes in the cockpit. At age 17, she proudly became a licensed pilot.
Anna Valuev
Anna graduated cum laude from Harvard College with a BA in Government. After graduating, she was an Associate at EY-Parthenon, consulting for education organizations such as education technology providers, institutions of higher education and non-profits. She then moved to federal government, where she served as Deputy Director of The Opportunity Project at the Census Innovation Labs of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Vera Rivard
When Regis College Biology/Pre-Med Freshman, Vera Rivard isn’t in class or studying she loves being in water. She is a member of her college’s swim team and alsoan avid open water swimmer. She has completed all three legs of the Triple Crown, which include: A circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan in New York City, crossing the Catalina Channel in California, and swimming across the English Channel.
Aislinn Sullivan
Aislinn was in the Top 10% of her high school graduating class and attends Northeastern University, where she is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. She hopes to work for a company involved in space exploration and research such as NASA or SpaceX. Aislinn has taken matters into her own hands when it comes to the gender gap, recruiting new members for her robotics team from a local all-girls school. She continues to be a role model for the middle school robotics team she mentors. Aislinn was in a club called “Girls Supporting Girls," where she helped provide menstrual products to females in third world countries.
Alexis Wagner
Alexis is truly an example of a woman who can do it all. She attends Lincoln Technical Institute, where she works in the Collision Repair Program. She has broken through stereotypes throughout her life, participating in various auto collision programs while dancing and cheerleading at the same time. Alexis hopes to inspire other women to pursue a career in auto repair while continuing to prove women can do any job a man can do.
Nicole Tepley
Nicole Tepley
Courtney earned a 4.0 GPA in HS, earned a BS in Biochemistry with a minor in Management & Leadership from Boston College, then graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.92 GPA, fourth in her class in the Doctor of Dentistry Medicine class at BU. She is currently enrolled in Boston University's Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine as a post-doctorate in Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics.
Sarah Lorgan-Khanyile
Sarah graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University, where she received numerous literature awards and held numerous leadership positions, such as President of the Literary Society, Student Assembly Chair of Environmental Policy & Planning, and Student Council. She completed summer research fellowships at the University of Chicago and Columbia University Graduate School, as well as Cornell and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As she comparatively examined Constitutional development in the US and South Africa through the lens of those marginalized in academia as part of an inclusive team at the Mellon Foundation, she felt overwhelming empowerment and self-acceptance for the first time.