Ten Socially Conscious Students Named Reynolds Scholars

By Jamie Acker

Ten NYU undergraduates were recently named scholars in the Catherine B. Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, which attracted 117 applicants, an increase of 35 percent over last year. The annual awards include a tuition grant of up to $20,000 each year for the recipients’ final two years of study, along with a stipend for a summer internship after junior year and an intensive two-year curricular and co-curricular program.  

     Managed by NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the provost’s office, the Reynolds Program also selects up to 20 graduate fellows annually from across 11 schools, with the next group to be chosen in April.

     To the judges in the undergraduate scholarship competition, the 10 winners stood out for their proven commitment to social progress and their inventiveness.

     Cody Brown, Tisch ’10, is creating http://nyulocal.com to offer an online campus newspaper that will help answer the question of how to establish a viable publication in an era of declining newspaper ad revenue and audience.

     “We’re trying to combine the social networking aspects of a Facebook and the content of a newspaper in a new online format,” Brown says.

     Another Reynolds scholar, Hannah Davis, Gallatin ’10, started the Ghana Literacy Project, an organization that addresses issues of illiteracy in the West African country. Partnered with Women’s Trust, a nonprofit organization that assists poor women with modest loans, the project launched the Girls’ Exploration and Empowerment Club, offering weekend activities such as field trips, a book club, career-based mentoring and science experiments. The hope is that more girls will stay in school through the 12th grade and consider going to college.

     “I want to implement it in other parts of Ghana and to bring it to post-conflict areas as well,” says Davis. “I’m interested in how education can be a tool of peace.”

     Jessica Mason, SSW ’10, is working to establish a spiritually uplifting shelter for teen mothers in the Elmhurst section of Queens, to be called Baby’s First Home. Her collaborators include a fellow NYU student and a community college student who lived in a series of shelters during her pregnancy as a teenager and found that many such havens lack inspiration. Baby’s First Home would highlight and build on the young parents’ personal resilience and dedication to their children, setting a positive tone from the moment of their arrival by congratulating them for being caring and responsible moms and moms-to-be.

     “That’s what I love about the Reynolds Program,” Mason says. “They say yes, you’re young, but your ideas are great and we can help you shape them. And you, as an individual, can make a difference in the world.”

     The scholarships were made possible by a pioneering gift from the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation.