78 Named Joyce Ivy Foundation Summer Scholars

WITH ELEVENTH COHORT, FOUNDATION SUPPORTS 555TH SCHOLAR

ANN ARBOR, MI, March 31, 2016 – The Joyce Ivy Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to broadening the college aspirations of talented female high school students from the Midwest, today announced the names of seventy-eight young women receiving scholarships for summer pre-college study at top colleges and universities. The 2016 Summer Scholars hail from six of the Joyce Ivy supported states of Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and come from seventy different high schools. The 2016 cohort marks a milestone for the Foundation, now in its eleventh year of operation, as the total number of Scholars supported to date now numbers 555.

The Joyce Ivy Foundation partners with a set of highly selective colleges and universities that host summer academic programs for high school students and have a commitment to providing financial aid to students from the Midwest. Summer Scholars typically receive financial aid from both the Joyce Ivy Foundation and the college summer program through special Joyce Ivy Foundation partnerships. Foundation partners include Barnard College, Brown University, Cornell University, Emory University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Smith College, Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale University.

“The Selection Committee was very impressed with the 2016 applicants,” said Erich Bagen, Joyce Ivy Foundation Board member and Chairman of the Summer Scholars Selection Committee. “Each application is reviewed multiple times by individual readers and then discussed in detail by the full committee. The 2016 Scholars have impressive academic records and show a great deal of personal spark and leadership – all elements we weigh carefully in the process. For the 2016 Scholars, 67% have a 4.0 GPA, and they are top students in their schools. They are also engaged members of their communities. The summer experience is going to be transformative for this group.”

​Students who participate in summer programs have the opportunity to live on a college campus, take classes with college faculty and students from all over the world, and explore areas of academic and extracurricular interest.

“This is a very exciting group of Scholars,” said S. Caroline Kerr, Chief Executive Officer of the Joyce Ivy Foundation. “They come from all walks of life: 40% of the group self-identified as students of color, 30% will be first generation in their family to attend a four-year college, and 44% will be receiving our highest level of scholarship, an estimated 62% of our total budget. They have enormous potential and are engaged in a wide range of activities in their home communities. I’m proud to think of them representing the Midwest on their various summer program campuses.”

The 2016 Summer Scholars will be honored at a reception and dinner on May 7 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, featuring an address by the 2016 Joyce Ivy Foundation Leader of the Year, Susan L. Blount, executive vice president and general counsel (retired) of Prudential Financial, Inc.

Several of the 2016 Summer Scholars will also be recipients of special named awards, including the Mary Vandewiele Leadership Award and the Joyce Ivy Alumnae Supported Scholarship. The Foundation expects to announce the 2016 award recipients next week.

The Joyce Ivy Foundation continues to partner with Minds Matter Cleveland and Minds Matter Twin Cities to jointly support a set of Summer Scholars. A total of four 2016 Scholars are participants in Minds Matter, a national organization that provides lower-income students with multi-year college preparatory mentoring and support. The Joyce Ivy Foundation, Minds Matter Cleveland, and Minds Matter Twin Cities will jointly fund the scholarships for the Minds Matter Scholars, in collaboration with the summer program partners.

On May 6–7, the Joyce Ivy Foundation will host the fifth annual Joyce Ivy College Admissions Symposium (JCAS), held this year at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The event draws together over 400 female high school juniors, their families, high school counselors and community-based organization leaders, admissions and financial aid professionals, and alumni of highly selective colleges. Summer Scholars, as well as other talented female high school juniors, and educators, are encouraged to attend the symposium, provided free of charge by the Foundation. Event details can be found on the Joyce Ivy Foundation website: www.joyceivyfoundation.org.

The 2016 Summer Scholars

Michigan
Megan Briggs (Mason County Central)
Jessica Chen (Huron High School)
Maria Contreras (Milan High School)
Kemi Dauda (Dr Benjamin Carson High School of Science)
Jovana Djokovic (University Liggett School)
Sandra Dubaisi (Crestwood High School)
Auden Elliott (East Grand Rapids High School)
Kaela Frailing (Portage Central High School)
Monika Francsics (Okemos High School)
Bliss Han (Pioneer High School)
Inali Hathaway (Skyline High School)
Grace Hermann (Berkley High School)
Lizzie Kimmel (Portage Northern High School)
Emma McNorton (Royal Oak High School)
Saveri Nandigama (Mercy High School)
Chi-chi Nwaneri (Huron High School)
Emma Philip (Gaylord High School)
Hannah Schneider (Lutheran High School Westland)
Julia Siegle (Dwight D. Eisenhower High School)
Chloe Smith (East Kentwood High School)
Julia Toye (South Lyon High School)
Meghna Tummala (Washtenaw International High School)
Camryn Turner (Waverly High School)
Leah Warren (Seaholm High School)
Christina Xu (Troy High School)
Maggie Yonker (Sacred Heart Academy)
Soraya Zrikem (Skyline High School)

Ohio
Jasmine Bacchus (William Mason High School)
Rama Balasubramaniam (Dublin Coffman High School)
Eleanor Boru (Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School)
Olivia Carpenter (Northridge High School)
Erin Cash (Mariemont High School)
Allison Dang (Metro Early College High School)
Edie Duncan (Shaker Heights High School)
Bhagee Ganesan (New Albany High School)
Luisana Gonzalez Di Tillio (Solon High School)
Ellen Haney (Homeschool)
Grace Hass-Hill (Chagrin Falls High School)
Carly Hurst (Licking Valley High School)
Yang-Ha Kim (Dublin Jerome High School)
Emma Lavetter-Keidan (Maumee Valley Country Day School)
Jasmine Lee (Columbus Academy)
Jess Lyons (Wooster High School)
Lydia Mason (Toledo Christian School)
Sara Morgan (Villa Angela St. Joseph)
Lien Nguyen (Little Miami High School)
Clara Rykaczewski (Mentor High School)
Nora Spadoni (Shaker Heights High School)
Angela Tlahuel (St. Frances Desales High School)
Haley Ward (Indian Hill High School)
Halle Wasser (Hathaway Brown)
Minjue Wu (Upper Arlington High School)
Faizah Wulandana (Stanford Online High School)
Jennifer Yen (Beachwood High School)

Missouri
Savannah Adair (Parkview High School)
Lily Fee (Strafford High School)
Beth Fox (Northstar Online Academy)
Keturah Gadson (Pattonville High School)
Lauren Greiner (Lindbergh High School)
Eleanor Nash (Central Academy of Excellence)
Kaitlyn Springate (Blue Springs High School)

Minnesota
Najma Dayib (Kennedy High School)
Diana Glebova (Champlin Park High School)
Ruth Honore (John F. Kennedy High School)
De’Ja Mathews (Eden Prairie High School)
Claire Song (Eden Prairie High School)
Der Vue (Humboldt High School)

North Dakota
Mona Abdelrahman (South High School)
Kylee Arndt (Sheyenne High School)
Faith Harron (Century High School)
Taylor Johnson (Century High School)
Hannah Manz (Shanley High School)
Lynna Ngo (Fargo South High School)

Nebraska
Megan Belongia (Omaha North High Magnet School)
Jennifer Jimenez (Omaha South High School)
Melissa Martinez Munoz (Omaha South High Magnet School)
Karina Navarro (Omaha South High Magnet School)
Ana Perez-Villagomez (South High School)

About The Joyce Ivy Foundation
The Joyce Ivy Foundation seeks to provide exposure, encouragement, counsel, financial assistance, and employment support to young women who have the academic, intellectual, and leadership potential to attend the nation’s most selective institutions of higher education. Funding for the Joyce Ivy Foundation is provided by individuals, other foundations, and corporations. In 2014, the Foundation named 80 young women from Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota as Joyce Ivy Scholars, providing scholarships for them to attend summer educational programs at 11 institutions, and providing or leveraging $500,000 of scholarship funding. For more information, please visit www.joyceivyfoundation.org or contact the Joyce Ivy Foundation at info@joyceivyfoundation.org or (734) 661-0229.