Giving Back

Many Meyerhoff Scholars arrive on campus possessing a well-developed sense of civic responsibility, but some scholars find a love of volunteerism through the program’s requirement to engage in at least one community service activity each year. Gonzalo Ubillus, M9, volunteered as a tutor in Baltimore’s Education-Based Latino Outreach Project. “It gave me an opportunity not only to be involved with kids, but to be involved with my Latino community, and I hadn’t been before. It’s really an amazing experience.”

Annica Warrick, M6, applied tools she learned through the Meyerhoff Program when tutoring students in inner-city Baltimore schools—asking students to describe, in front of groups, an achievement of which they were proud. “I tried to show them that doing well is not a bad thing; that they should try to do well, because they will be praised not ridiculed for it,” she says. Now a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech, Warrick add, “I also think that some of the older girls I tutored do aim higher now, after realizing that I’m one of a few African-American females in engineering.”

For Charles Shelton, M6, Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon, the power to change lives is generated by the example that scholars can provide for young children. “One of the best ways I can continue to further the goals of the program is by interacting with younger students and showing them that they can realize their dreams—that failure is only possible if you give up. We need to demonstrate that truth to everyone by being role models and mentors,” he says.