Newest Scholarship Recipient: Aleisha Sawyer

We are proud to introduce our latest recipient of the Dorothy Irene Height Education Foundation Scholarship – Aleisha Sawyer.

Aleisha P. Sawyer is a freshman student from Atlanta, GA, who attends Spelman College as an economics major. She graduated in the Top 25 in the Class of 2020 from Westlake High School in Atlanta, GA, with over one thousand hours of community service throughout her high school career. In 2020, she also served as a Girl Scout Ambassador, the highest rank for a Girl Scout, and completed the Girl Scout Gold Award Project. The project, entitled Beyond the Classroom, is helping low-income and underrepresented students find opportunities to improve their academic performance in school and exposure to different careers. In 2019, Aleisha became the only African American in Fulton County, Georgia, to serve as a Bank of America Student Leader. Aleisha has also completed several internships and summer programs at colleges and universities, such as Georgetown University, Howard University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Bethune-Cookman University, Tennessee State University, and George Washington University. Her hobbies include dancing, volunteering at her church nursery, reading, traveling, and spending time with her friends and family. After undergraduate school, Aleisha plans to further her education with Ph.D. in economics and a law degree while continuing to build her Beyond the Classroom project as a non-profit program.

During her Freshman year, she has continued to serve her community. She is a tutor for five Atlanta metro schools. She tutors math and reading for several kindergarten students. She also teaches middle and high school math for students who need extra support to the virtual aspect from Covid-19. She enjoys her tutoring sessions because she enjoys giving back to her community. She also says her students inspire and motivate her in her educational endeavors.

She is also a Change Agent at the Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute. She serves on a team with undergraduate and graduate college students in a research project about teacher well-being in Metro Atlanta schools amid the pandemic.