Three students from the University of Minnesota have been awarded the Colonial Dames of America Scholarship.
The National Society of Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) is a national service organization founded in 1891. They award this scholarship to current graduate and professional degree-seeking international students who plan to further their careers and make impacts in their home country.
Recipients share their experiences at the University of Minnesota and their plans for the future:
“Ultimately, I hope to return to the Bahamas with my degree. The healthcare in the Bahamas is struggling like most countries due to the pandemic and other issues. And so my goal is to go back and develop a lot of community-wide interventions and preventative strategies to help Bahamians improve their health.” - Denisha Demeritte, Epidemiology, Bahamas
“The reason that I chose this program is to have some kind of contribution to the health policy of my country because I believe that everything starts from the policy.” - Omer Ali, Health Services Research, Policy & Administration, Ethiopia
“In the long run, I hope to help children without parents in countries that don’t have the infrastructure or systems to help them. Whether they don’t have sufficient resources or lack workers or whether they don’t have systems in place like kinship care or foster care or institutional care, I want to help these children in these countries. I want to help these children thrive in the face of their adversities and be resilient.” Sook-Young Park, Social Work, South Korea
On April 1, 2023, recipients were formally awarded and met with members at the Colonial Dames of America - Minnesota corporate society spring event at Historic Fort Snelling.
