2024 Soar Over Hate Bright Futures Scholarship
​Five Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) 12th graders in New York City who demonstrate financial need were selected for $2,500 scholarships based on their below essay responses to one of the following two questions:
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1. How have you demonstrated leadership and commitment to serving your community? Share any specific examples and aspirations to build on these efforts in the future.
2. What do you think is the greatest challenge in your community today and how would you address it?
Thank you to our judges, award-winning authors, Qian Julie Wang and Ly Tran, as well as our volunteers who helped with the screening!
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, I, like many others, faced xenophobic remarks from my own classmates at school to strangers on the Subway. Being labeled as “quiet” my entire life just because I was Asian American, I wanted to show my peers that we can use our voice as a collective power. [...] I co-founded NYC’s first student-run online newspaper, Asian Youth for NYC News (AYNYC), written for the Asian community and by Asian youth through Dear Asian Youth’s Brooklyn Chapter.
Jinyu Xu
As a kid I appreciated the warm sense of security, trust, and confidence I received being surrounded by peers who wanted to see me grow. To give back and make each child feel that they can grow in all aspects from physical sports, intellectual classes, and craft classes. To ensure their security that they had a community behind them supporting them. That's the main goal for my community because I always want the children to be able to express their creativity, tackle activities to explore their passion. To never look at their culture with shame.
Jolee Cheung
Through calls and overdoors, I talked, heard, and learned. I helped tackle issues ranging from gathering resources for ESL students, finding temporary housing for families impacted by fire, and issuing handicapped permits for a man with Alzheimer's. After all my community is not just a low-income and predominantly immigrant community, it's a community of fighters, and problem solvers with their own tales to tell and lessons to learn from. I can’t wait to talk, hear, and learn more from them.
Ivy Liu
Through our interactions, I started to understand the vulnerability of the senior population, along with the difficulties and importance of patient care. My supervisor highlighted the issues of seniors being frequently alone, and absence of former program attendees. Her concerns struck a chord with me– despite my lack of exposure to the elderly before this experience– I knew full well the loneliness and solitude that they felt. The majority of my childhood my parents were out of state– perpetually working –trying to make ends meet, while I was under my aunt’s care. I fully understand the heartwarming feeling of having a shoulder to lean on– even if it was only for a moment.
Yuqi Zhang
In a way, I am glad that my community works to foster success and wealth, and that we work to live better lives. But at the same time, I wish my community could also be open to the idea that we could be successful and prosper without following the route that everyone is taking, the route that is considered “safe” and even the standard. And sometimes, Chinese-American kids themselves need to know that they can break out of that mold and pursue what they wish.