2020 Women's Empowerment Scholarship Recipient

As a very active member in her community, Hadiya maintained multiple leadership opportunities throughout her time at Wachusett Regional High School including co-president of Wachusett's Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, president of the French Honor Society, co-captain of the Division I girls' soccer varsity team, and a 4 year member of student government.

The Worcester Islamic Center also served a crucial role in Hadiya's development as a first-generation African American woman. Last year, Hadiya fully embraced her role as the lead coordinator of the WIC girls' youth group and successfully orchestrated four interactive health workshops, tackling topics like mental health and spirituality. Today, she continues to help establishing monthly events targeting teenaged Muslim women, where they discuss prevailing issues like being successful as a minority living in America. 

The disappointingly low percentage of black women in the STEM workforce is a number that pushes Hadiya to persist with her interests in the STEM field. Her passion for biology sparked her participation in the 12 week Women's Research and Mentorship Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she researched fibrin protein morphology after water droplet evaporation. During her summer training in molecular biology at Boston College, Hadiya worked in the lab of Professor Ismael Ben Fofana, learning about vaccine formation for HIV and performing a mini-prep of DNA.

As a first year at Tufts University, Hadiya hopes to add to the diversity of the STEM fields by bringing her own experiences as a black Muslim woman pursuing a degree in the biomedical sciences.

We are pleased to award Hadiya with a $2,000 scholarship for the 2020-21 academic year.