Today, the 24-year-old is on the cusp of earning two graduate degrees simultaneously, having elevated �鶹ӳ����ý’s reputation as a community and society changemaker along the way with the AI for Nonprofits course she helped develop. These milestones aren’t just personal. They’re also serving her biggest passion: helping others.

That’s the thing about opportunity. Sometimes all you need is a chance, a dash of inspiration and someone who believes in you.

Charting Her Own Path

Dones, who was born in Cuba, was just 2 years old when her family immigrated to Miami. Growing up, she viewed attending college as a somewhat unattainable goal.

“I remember discussions with my parents where they would say that college is for the wealthy, or that we’d cross that bridge when we get there,” she says. “I didn’t have anyone to rely on for mentorship because my parents didn’t know anyone that had been to college before, and all of our family was in Cuba.”

In high school, she joined the International Baccalaureate program and learned about financial aid opportunities such as Bright Futures scholarships. A teacher encouraged her to seek out more scholarship opportunities from Miami-based nonprofits and foundations. That’s when she realized college was within her reach.

“I thought, ‘If everyone around me is doing this, what’s stopping me?’” she says.

Dones connected with the Key Biscayne Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps students achieve their educational goals like the ones of her own. With assistance from the foundation and other nonprofits, Dones ended up receiving $20,000 in scholarships to attend �鶹ӳ����ý.

The support not only sparked her academic career; it also inspired a calling to give back to others.

She pulled up others with her along the way as an undergrad, serving as a mentor for local high school students and impressed upon them the importance of internships. She realized how much she loved positively impacting them.

That’s when her own mentor, Josefina Rosario — assistant director for access and student support at — suggested enrolling in the public administration and nonprofit management dual-degree graduate program next. It was a decision that would further fuel her passion for helping others.

Through the program, housed in , Dones has engaged in real-world experiences that simulate what it’s like to work in the nonprofit and public sectors. Through service-learning, she evaluated and helped develop a strategic fundraising plan for a local nonprofit. She’s also created budgets for the City of Orlando and analyzed how both the city and Orange County Sheriff’s Office use social media. She attended her first professional conference.

Perhaps some of the most invaluable experience she has gained involves the industry’s intersection with artificial intelligence.

Leveraging AI for Community Impact

Through the �鶹ӳ����ý Applied AI Innovation Initiative, Dones has been working with associate lecturer and initiative lead ’11�ʳ�� in using generative AI tools to find innovative solutions for challenges in educational and behavioral interventions. During her time as a student fellow for the initiative, Dones has learned to harness the power of AI to create apps, websites, data dashboards, chat bots, online courses and even a board game that enhances financial management skills — all without having a technical background.

“I never thought I would be able to build an app, but now we can with the help of AI,” she says. “When I saw that I can do something like that or create a website with the help of AI, I wanted to continue doing it. Nonprofit organizations tend to get left behind when there’s new technology out there. I imagined how AI can help a nonprofit with time or resource constraints, and that’s how my passion for learning about it started.”

“I imagined how AI can help a nonprofit with time or resource constraints, and that’s how my passion for learning about it started.” — Ketty Dones ’23

Dones has played a significant role for the Applied AI Innovation Initiative in helping local nonprofits leverage AI to boost creativity and efficiency in advancing their missions. She contributed to creating an AI Impact Hub, an app that serves as a one-stop shop to connect nonprofits with resources and engage with other nonprofit leaders through a discussion forum. She’s also assisted in hosting workshops that explore how AI can be used as a tool to assist nonprofits with social media, fundraising, compliance and evaluation.

Most notably, Dones helped the team develop an in partnership with that covers topics ranging from grant writing, evaluation, storytelling and prompting with AI to ethical guardrails, accountability and security when using the technology, as well as best practices for integrating AI tools in day-to-day operations. The course is also used in the Innovation and Technical Assistance Program, which provides hands-on assistance to local nonprofits engaging with AI-powered tools to help strengthen their organizational capacity.

In fact, 26 Orange County nonprofits graduated from the program last month with an AI for Nonprofits certificate.

Full Circle and Ever Upward

If it helps bridge the gap between AI and nonprofit organizations, count Dones in.

“I always like to think of AI as a thought partner and ask how it can help elevate ideas, not create them,” Dones says. “That’s why I think it’s so important for the public and nonprofit sectors to leverage this technology. Continuing education in the nonprofit and public administration sectors is always important, but especially now with learning how to integrate AI tools.”

Although AI has served as her assistant in creating innovative solutions for others, it’s the combination of her grit and determination to succeed along with a passion for serving others that assists her in unlocking the potential not just within herself but also in the community.

“Ketty has impressed me since day one,” Concha says. “Between her contributions to the AI for Nonprofits course and developing impactful resources using AI and advanced prompting techniques, she is a prime example of a student without a technical background using AI for social good.”

For now, Dones will continue working with Concha and the Applied AI Innovation Initiative to further develop AI tools and solutions, working toward certifications and mentoring nonprofit partners along the way. Although she is considering pursuing a career in AI product management or sales down the road, it’s using her knowledge to set up nonprofits for success that she finds most rewarding.

After all, her accomplishments thus far and her bright future wouldn’t have been possible without some help from nonprofit organizations along the way.

“I always think about the Key Biscayne Community Foundation and other nonprofit organizations that helped me receive funding to go to school,” she says. “It’s kind of full circle for me now. I feel that I can give back to my local community in understanding not just the challenges nonprofits face but also how I can help them in the future.”

Van Dusen was born in Uruguay, the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America with a population of 3.4 million.

When she was 20, she moved to Canada and, soon after, the United States in search of greater opportunities. She got married and became a mom, which changed the way she viewed the world and gave her a broader purpose, Van Dusen says.

“I started looking at the world not only through a woman’s eyes, but also through a mom’s eyes,” she says. “I became passionate about raising a healthy little girl, not only physically but mentally too.”

“I also wanted to ensure she would have a better future with the inspiration she gave me that it is never too late to go after your dreams and set the example for her to follow,” she says.

It sparked a calling in Van Dusen to follow her passion to become a pediatric nurse practitioner.

“I wanted to wake up every day with a purpose,” she says.

Finding the Support to Succeed

While Van Dusen was taking prerequisites and preparing to enroll in nursing school, the COVID-19 pandemic began and she went through a difficult divorce — now primarily caring for her daughter with no other family support in the U.S.

“For many years, I was in survival mode,” she says. Throughout the challenges, she persevered for her daughter. “My daughter is watching and I remember how important it is for me to keep going.”

She was admitted into the competitive associate in science in nursing program at Miami-Dade College and enrolled full-time, taking out loans, to graduate and begin working as soon as possible.

In Spring 2023, she successfully graduated with her A.S.N. with the honors of making the Dean’s List, joining Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and being a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success. Shortly after graduation, she passed the national registered nursing licensing exam (NCLEX-RN).

“I work hard, and always strive for the best,” she says.

She began working full-time as an registered nurse (RN), and began the application process at �鶹ӳ����ý to enroll in the online RN to B.S.N. program, geared exclusively for licensed registered nurses to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing (B.S.N.).

“I wanted to go a reputable school and �鶹ӳ����ý is a really good nursing school,” she says of the program, which is .

“�鶹ӳ����ý was also giving me the opportunity to succeed,” she says. “I didn’t know how I was going to be able to balance mom life, student life and work life.”

Van Dusen says what sets �鶹ӳ����ý’s program apart is its flexibility and support from admissions counselors.

“�鶹ӳ����ý allowed me the ability to learn at my own pace,” she says. “They allow students to add classes or reduce classes, depending upon how life is going. That was important to me.”

Now a senior in the program, Van Dusen is currently taking an extra class both this fall and spring in order to graduate a semester early in Spring 2025. She is also the recipient of two nursing scholarships, which �鶹ӳ����ý’s College of Nursing awards more than .

“It’s such a blessing as a single mom without any help,” she says of the scholarships. “It’s not only the help, but it’s the fact that someone is reading your story and decides help you. They believe in you, and that means a lot.”

Motherhood and Making a Difference

No doubt, Van Dusen has worked hard to achieve her goals and make a positive impact on the lives of patients — and in the life of her biggest fan.

Her daughter, now 8, says that her mom likes to help people and is her hero.

“I get emotional,” says Van Dusen of her daughter. “She’s the reason why I went back to school, and that’s the reason why I became a nurse — to make a difference in people’s lives.”

While at �鶹ӳ����ý, she works full time in a reproductive endocrinology and infertility clinic in the Miami area. She works alongside doctors and providers to provide patient care, and also translates to Spanish-speaking patients.

“Nurses have a holistic care approach to health, including mental health,” she says. “It’s important to learn how to talk to patients, to educate them.”

Of continuing to pursue her education, she says there’s a saying in Spanish for that.

“Now that I’m dancing, I’ll keep dancing,” she says. “Now that I’m in school, I’ll keep going.”

“Once I became a mom, I became passionate about kids and it is the reason I have decided to pursue my dream of becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner,” Van Dusen says. “I want to help parents build a solid foundation of health and wellness so that children can develop into physically and emotionally healthy adults.”

“People tend to get overwhelmed and think they can’t do it,” she says. Her advice, “Don’t overwhelm yourself with it. Just take one class at a time, and try. You never know.”

“It was kind of the first step in breaking that generational curse. …There is no greater feeling. It meant the past four years weren’t for nothing — all that hard work, the late nights, finishing all my assignments during my breaks at work,” says Kieu. “It was all worth it to see my parents watch me do something they’d never done. In that moment, I could see that it was about more than just myself — it was about my entire family. It felt like a victory for all of us.”

“It was kind of the first step in breaking that generational curse. …There is no greater feeling. It meant the past four years weren’t for nothing. … It was all worth it to see my parents watch me do something they’d never done.” —Theresa Kieu ’21

Both of Kieu’s parents immigrated to the United States from Vietnam as teenagers, her mom at 13 and her dad at 16. With large families in need of their support, college never felt like an option. Kieu’s mother graduated from high school. For her father, life got in the way of earning his diploma. They opened salons in Melbourne, instilling in Kieu the value of hard work.

As Kieu started school, she struggled to feel a sense of belonging. “Growing up was really difficult for me when it came to fitting in because English was not my first language. Vietnamese was,” she says. “It was really difficult for me to make friends and go to school. I felt alone from the beginning.”

Later, Kieu also often felt alone in her goals for the future. Her parents’ hopes for her included a stable job and a stable income, but not necessarily higher education.

“[My parents] wanted me to have a steady job because that’s how it was for them when they finished high school. They had to support themselves. They had large families and had to take care of their siblings and be their own parents essentially,” she says. “When I got out of high school, my parents wanted me to get a job first and foremost.”

But Kieu had other plans. She wanted to go to college, and her heart was set on �鶹ӳ����ý. She loved the Orlando area and the many professional development opportunities available through the university.

With little guidance, navigating the college application process was challenging. And although Kieu wanted to be at �鶹ӳ����ý, it wasn’t yet financially possible. She eventually heard about DirectConnect to �鶹ӳ����ý and attended Eastern Florida State College before transferring to �鶹ӳ����ý.

Kieu’s choice to major in hospitality management was inspired by memories of her parents’ hospitality growing up. Her parents’ house was “the ultimate entertainment destination,” where everyone was welcomed and made to feel at home.

It was her parents’ “hospitable vibe” that enabled them to build a community and a business so many miles from home. “That inspired me to go into hospitality,” says Kieu, “because hospitality is welcoming all.”

As she pursued her degree in hospitality, Kieu also worked full-time, first as a Publix cashier and then as an in-park guest services coordinator at Universal, studying during breaks or late at night.

“When I started, I had no money for college,” she says. “I was really afraid of the road ahead, and I knew I had to work in order to make it work. I figured pursuing a degree was only going to be me, myself and I.”

When Kieu received first-generation scholarship funding both her junior and senior year, she felt more supported and less alone. “That money was a huge opportunity for me. Being a full-time student and a full-time employee, it really helped out with a lot of my stress,” she says.

“The scholarship was also a huge reassurance. It helped all my doubts about being in college melt away and reminded me that there are people out there who realize what a huge opportunity this is for me. It eased the mental burden of first-generation imposter syndrome.”

Kieu describes imposter syndrome as “feeling you’re never going to be enough, do enough or fit in.” It’s a common phenomenon for first-generation students, who are charting a new course for their families, often without the resources and support enjoyed by their peers.

For Kieu, receiving a first-generation scholarship affirmed that she belonged at �鶹ӳ����ý. And soon, her parents saw it too. “They could see that I have a true passion for hospitality, and this is what I wanted to pursue,” she says.

“They were surprised that I worked every single day nine to five while going to college. I think that’s when they realized how driven I was to complete my degree, and that’s when they started to be really supportive and help out with whatever I needed. It was honestly the best experience for me.”

As Kieu crossed the stage in May during her graduation ceremony, she walked not just for herself, but for “everyone else that came before [her],” and for those who will come after. She says, “I want to be a strong role model, not just for my family and everybody else, but for my little brother. I want to be that support, that backbone, and show him that it’s possible.”

Now, Kieu is working as a senior coordinator for guest communications at Universal Orlando Resort. She has her sights set on graduate school at �鶹ӳ����ý, with aspirations to drive innovation within the hospitality industry.

Looking back on her time at �鶹ӳ����ý, Kieu says, “I had all the help I needed and more — more than I could ever ask for.” When she graduated, she was honored to donate to her class gift to fund scholarships for students like her.

“Regardless of how much you give, you’re giving students the motivation and reassurance that earning your degree is possible,” she says. “It’s not just financial support, but the overall message that ‘we are here for you.’ It’s a reminder that there’s someone out there who is willing to invest in you, so you should invest in yourself.”

Paul, who is earning two degrees in psychology and criminal justice this semester, remembers much of that afternoon in January 2010 that changed her life. Then 12, she was at home with her grandmother, two sisters and cousins while her mother had gone out to call her father, a U.S. citizen who was living stateside at the time.

“I was in the front of my house, and it started shaking. My grandma screamed, ‘It’s an earthquake!’ ” she recalls. “We stayed on the floor until everything stopped and my uncle ran in to help us get out. It was so foggy when we went outside from all the debris. When it started to clear, that’s when I noticed I had been walking on bodies.”

She says the family nearly lost her aunt, who had become trapped under a building. Her relatives all worked to get her out and it took her months to recover. Her grandmother broke her arm from falling when the quake hit. Fortunately, everyone in her family survived.

Paul says that she hasn’t suffered from the trauma and shock of the experience, but there are scenes that stay with her — the school near her house that collapsed and killed the children who were attending; the neighbor who ran back inside a house to save someone but died along with them — and motivate her to make the most of her life.

“That could have happened to me,” she says. “The fact that I got to come the United States, I’m going to take advantage of all the opportunities I can.”

Paul, along with her sisters and mother, eventually moved to Philadelphia with her father, where she started the ninth grade unable to read, speak or comprehend English. She made it a goal to learn it quickly and add to her repertoire of mastered languages: French, Creole and Spanish.

College was another goal. It always was.

“Education is a huge thing in Haitian culture,” says Paul, who is the first in her family to attend college. “Our country believes that with education you can get really far, so it’s something they push hard from the time you’re young. Since I was little, I always wanted to become something big.”

Her family eventually moved to Florida, where she started at Palm Beach State College before transferring to �鶹ӳ����ý. She has found ways to become involved in the campus culture, joining the Caribbean Students’ Association and a jujitsu club. She says her fellow jujitsu club members have become like family to her. She also made the dean’s list.

“We been through so much in surviving the earthquake, but what amazed us the most is her courage and her determination to keep going and do well in life and think that no matter what everything is going to be alright,” her parents, Jean and Yvonie, wrote in an email. “We feel proud and happy at the same time, and we will do everything in our power to make her earn a master’s degree also because she can and she will.”

“It’s not easy to get through college and get a degree. When I look at where I’ve come from, I’m proud of the fact that I kept going.”

As she achieves one of her dreams Aug. 7, she looks to her future where she hopes to earn a master’s degree in data science and eventually pursue a career as a criminal profiler. When she thinks about finally having her diploma in hand, she can’t help but think about her family.

“I wanted to go to college and get my degree for my family — to make my parents proud and everyone around me proud and be an example for my sisters to look up to,” she says. “It’s not easy to get through college and get a degree. When I look at where I’ve come from, I’m proud of the fact that I kept going.”

It’s taken the �鶹ӳ����ý student years to get to this point in his life; a place of acceptance for the abuse he suffered as a child and the disappointments he has had to endure. Now, as the 30-year-old is one semester away from becoming the first person in his family to earn a college degree, he’s grateful for the focus and drive that brought him to this point in his life.

“I’ve learned if you just persevere and have a clear goal and focus,” he says, “you can get through anything.”

Daniels was born in West Palm Beach and was in kindergarten, the oldest of three brothers, when his parents split up and his mother soon after began dating someone who was abusive. He says he went to school with bruises, sometimes a sprained limb, until child services eventually intervened.

He spent two years in foster care while the courts figured out what his fate would be. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the lawyers involved in his case made an impression on him and would play a role later in shaping his career aspirations.

“They seemed like they’re valued members of the community and people cared about what they had to say,” says the legal studies major. “They were kind of like modern-day heroes, saving children or people in need. They just had a very professional and commanding attitude and presence that I respected.”

Once Daniels was deemed a ward of the court, he was placed with his grandmother, who he says welcomed and adored him. Daniels and his youngest brother, an infant at the time who went to live with an aunt and uncle in Massachusetts, kept in contact over the years and saw each other during the holidays. His middle brother stayed with his mother and moved to the western part of the country. Daniels rarely spoke to either of them.

When he graduated from high school, Daniels planned on enlisting in the Air Force to become a pilot. Just before he was set to head to boot camp, he found out he had a blue-red color vision deficiency, which meant no flying.

“I was devastated,” he says. “For a little while I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I felt like I had let my whole family down because I felt like there was a lot of hype and when it didn’t happen, I was crushed. I ended up running away from home because I didn’t want to face it.”

“When I was younger, I wished all the time, ‘Why can’t I just have a normal life?’ Now that I’m older and I’ve learned a little bit more, I think it’s like the furnace for steel — it hardened me and made me a stronger person.”

For a while he did odd jobs. He worked at Panera Bread. He sold nuts and bolts for an industrial-supply company. He was a car salesman for a couple days.

“I just felt a longing for something more,” he says. “I just knew I wanted to go to school and make something of myself.”

He enrolled at St. Johns River State College and eventually transferred to �鶹ӳ����ý to major in computer science. When he quickly realized the required math classes weren’t for him, he took an aptitude and personality test he found online. Lawyer popped up among the list of professions he matched with, and he started to think about the lawyers from his childhood.

He switched his major to legal studies and nearly every facet of his life started pulling in the right direction, he says. He made the dean’s list. He started seeking counseling through to unpack his childhood trauma. He finally made lasting friendships he always wished for as a kid by playing his favorite game, Dungeons & Dragons. He became engaged in his classes, even when they challenged his weaknesses.

“We have a mock courtroom on the downtown campus so we can get a feel of how it will be. I’ve shied away from public speaking, but it’s been a really fun challenge to see myself progress,” he says. “I found that I like to command that room.”

He says once he pays off his student loans, he would like to offer legal services pro bono to help children who are in the same position he was in as a child. Daniels is most proud of the work it took to get this far, and that his youngest brother has told him he wants to go back to school, just like Daniels did.

“At risk of sounding cliché, they say ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ I definitely agree,” he says. “When I was younger, I wished all the time, ‘Why can’t I just have a normal life?’ Now that I’m older and I’ve learned a little bit more, I think it’s like the furnace for steel — it hardened me and made me a stronger person.”

“[Since] then, we basically had a very challenging life emotionally because my father was the breadwinner and glue of our family,” says Eugene, who is studying communication and conflict. “For about a year, we had to travel an hour away to Lakeland Hospital to visit him. I remember my siblings and I often had to do our homework in the hospital.”

Once her father was able to come home, he was still unable to function on his own, and her mother, who is from Dominica, had to become his primary caretaker, leaving Eugene and her two siblings to essentially take care of themselves, she says.

“As a result, my mother went through depression, and my siblings and I had to grow up and mature really fast and basically raise ourselves,” Eugene says. “But I’m very close to my mom and despite these trying times, she always expressed the desire for her children to get an education because she did not have the opportunity to do it and taught us the importance of getting an education.”

“I hope with my degree I can help relieve financial burdens and help take care of them.” – Oneisha Eugene, �鶹ӳ����ý student

While recovering at home, her father, a former construction manager, has been able to relearn some skills, such as walking, talking and cooking. Now, Eugene enjoys seeing him garden and care for their home, going for ice cream with him, and listening to him sing along to the music on the radio. Her mom has also improved some and she says they remain close and are there for one another.

“My father has gotten better but is still unable to work. Since my mom has dedicated her like to taking care of him, she’s unable to work as well, so I hope with my degree I can help relieve financial burdens and help take care of them,” she says.

Strength Through Support

Using settlement money from the car accident, Eugene’s mother would always buy whatever learning materials the New Jersey native needed when she was younger and enrolled her in tutoring, she says. But when it came to covering costs for college, without aid — such as the Black and Gold Grant, the �鶹ӳ����ý Scholars Award or the Derrick Sutton Endowed Scholarship — it wouldn’t be possible for the DirectConnect to �鶹ӳ����ý student to complete her degree and go on to pursue her goal of becoming a teacher.

“I’m studying communication and conflict because I’ve had a lot of failed friendships and relationships due to lack of communication and I can see how being a better communicator can help me in professional and general life settings,” says Eugene, who is also a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, which helps college students build career skills.

First-generation students are those whose parents have not earned a bachelor’s degree. Although her older brother, 27-year-old Greg Eugene ’18, earned a bachelor’s in computer engineering from �鶹ӳ����ý, she feels like she’s had to navigate her college journey on her own since their fields are so different from one another.

But their strong bond as siblings, including her older sister, 30, has helped her stay strong through their family struggles and whenever she’s felt overwhelmed with coursework.

“Strength in numbers definitely helped. We overcame a lot through laughter and jokes and our faith. Being close in age, we were able to relate to one another a lot,” says the 26 year old.

Focused on a Positive Future

Given her family’s experiences, Eugene has learned the importance of mental health awareness and has made it a priority to maintain her well-being while juggling home life, work and school. She does so by journaling, setting boundaries and taking a step back when needed, while still pushing herself to the best of her ability. She hopes to emphasize mental wellness when she leads a classroom and has already begun preparing for the necessary certification exams for the field.

“I hope to be a teacher who can revolutionize the field of teaching,” Eugene says. “I’m not looking to be a teacher who only supports students’ success in the classroom. I’m looking to connect with students emotionally and mentally to guide them to reaching self-actualization and realize their potential, which will help make them better agents in society.”

“I can’t wait to finish [my degree] and make my family proud.” – Oneisha Eugene, �鶹ӳ����ý student

Eugene has learned part of being your best self is allowing yourself time to process personal challenges to learn from them, grow and focus on the positive.

“Compared with my parents’ experience, I’m very privileged to be going to school and to be close to completing my degree in Summer 2021,” Eugene says. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to go to college and it’s changed my life. I’ve really been able to overcome and evolve as an individual by being persistent with my studies. I can’t wait to finish and make my family proud.”

“Once I put my mind to something, I’ll do whatever it takes to master it,” he says.

And that explains how he came to �鶹ӳ����ý as a first-generation university student, how he discovered something once-mysterious to him called research and has become so enamored with it that he’s worked alongside Ivy Leaguers and world-respected scientists en route to a degree in molecular microbiology. This fall, he’ll start work on his doctorate at Stanford.

“Once I put my mind to something, I’ll do whatever it takes to master it.” — George Walters-Marrah ’20

This is the same young man who didn’t even know what a GPA was until his senior year of high school.

“My mother and grandmother stressed the importance of college,” says Walters-Marrah, who grew up with an older sister, Rachel, and younger brother, Aaron, in Miami. “My mom just wasn’t sure where she’d get the resources to send us all to college.”

Walters-Marrah had a scholarship offer to play soccer in the Northeast, but he didn’t sense a good fit. Then a PE teacher pointed out his GPA, explained what it meant, and said, “You have opportunities, George.”

That was all he needed to hear. Completing a four-year degree with limited debt became his new obsession.

One Day in a Dark Room

Walters-Marrah can’t tell you why he kept bothering his mother, Althea, for a microscope and telescope as a child. Despite limited finances, she gave in.

“Do what interests you,” she would say.

Although young Walters-Marrah couldn’t see living cells or distant planets with the toy scopes, they did open his imagination. He also heard of these people called scientists.

“I didn’t know where they worked or if they were even real. To me, scientists were myths.” He might never have known the truth had he not visited �鶹ӳ����ý with a high-school friend. Walters-Marrah liked what he saw and heard.

“When he gets to that point there’s no denying him,” says his mother. Some of Walters-Marrah’s drive comes from his mother, who grew up on a farm in Jamaica, became a track star, and was the first member of her family to move to the United States. She put her own college aspirations aside while raising three kids, but would not let them put theirs aside (Rachel earned an associate degree from Miami Dade College and Aaron is currently enrolled there).

“Mom said I could go to �鶹ӳ����ý, but I’d have to find ways to fund it,” Walters-Marrah says.

That’s all she had to say. First, Walters-Marrah earned a Silver Pegasus Scholarship as an incoming freshman. He had to grind through his first few weeks at �鶹ӳ����ý, listening intently to lectures and making note cards after class, whatever it took to keep his grades up. Then he walked into a lab for the first time. There, in the dark, he saw an object glowing and crawling under a microscope. Bacteria. He looked around and thought:

This is research. These are scientists. They aren’t myths. They’re real.

“I decided right then, ‘This is what I want to do,’ ” he says.

“From my first interactions with George, it was clear that he had ambitious goals.” – Kyle Rohde, �鶹ӳ����ý associate professor

He didn’t have to wait long to discover research opportunities, thanks to mentors such as Kimberly Schneider, director of . “George applied for programs, scholarships and internships that eventually built out an incredible resume,” says Schneider. “He became a role model.”

The Learning Environment and Academic Research Network provided him exposure to research projects. He participated in the , summer work studies, and mentored other students from underserved communities. He heard about Associate Professor Kyle Rohde’s research on bacteria and diseases, so he emailed and called to ask if he could be a part of it.

“From my first interactions with George, it was clear that he had ambitious goals,” says Rohde. “Rather than passively hoping his dreams would come true, he used initiative and grit to take full advantage of opportunities.”

Persistence Pays Off

There was this time when a scientist from MIT came to speak at �鶹ӳ����ý. She asked how many students in the room knew the cell cycle. How about what transcribes DNA? Walters-Marrah raised his hand to both questions.

“Who knows how to code?” she asked.

Walters-Marrah didn’t know coding. So he went back to his apartment and started teaching it to himself. Shortly after mastering it, he earned a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. He used some of the money to do research at Cornell University, not for credit but simply to join a bacteria research project. During the research, he used his new coding knowledge to help his team analyze data more efficiently. The researchers at Cornell were impressed.

During his four years at �鶹ӳ����ý, he’s also conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania and, through the National Science Foundation, at the University of Chicago. The 40-hour weeks in the lab didn’t seem like work, so he went in on weekends, too.

“I couldn’t get enough of it,” he says.

“I want to help underserved students learn about the accessibility of higher education.” – George Walters-Marrah ’20

His mom always told him: Do what you love. And so his research isn’t going to end any time soon. In September, he’ll turn a new page at Stanford University, diving deep into the tricky relationship between bacteria and immune systems — with barely any debt. After that he might become a research professor or do industry-based research.

“One thing is for sure,” he says, “I want to help underserved students learn about the accessibility of higher education.”

Michael Aldarondo-Jeffries, director of the McNair Scholars Program, has watched Walters-Marrah almost from Day 1. “Since his arrival at �鶹ӳ����ý,” says Aldarondo-Jeffries, “George has made it his mission to make a difference for others. I cannot think of another student who better embodies �鶹ӳ����ý and its creed.”

The incoming freshman who thought science resided next to fiction is leaving as a scientist. His message: If you want it badly enough, you can master anything. Even those concepts you might think are myths.

At the end of the Fall 2018 semester he accomplished just that by earning a bachelor’s of arts in graphic design with a minor in marketing.

“I know my family is proud of me,” Allen says. “I wanted to inspire them, too, to pursue college and finish and reach their goals.”

In between all his hard work, Allen accumulated accomplishments that are enviable. He arrived at �鶹ӳ����ý with a Bright Futures Scholarship and several other academic scholarships. And while at the university he’s been on the President’s Honor Roll and Dean’s List, and has been the recipient of the Excellence in Action Award, Project Best Most Active Member and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars Award.

But Allen says he is most proud of having worked in the Office of Student Financial Assistance, helping brand and promote the ¢ent$ible Knight$ campaign, �鶹ӳ����ý’s campuswide program which encourages financial wellness among students.

Launched in 2015, the ¢ent$ible Knight$ program guides students to resources and webinars to stay on sound financial footing. It has a website, social media pages and marketing materials. The program offers webinars and seminars on everything from how to negotiate a salary to establishing strong personal budgets. By 2017, nearly 400 online financial aid tutorials have been completed by students at �鶹ӳ����ý and the average student score on the financial literacy assessments is 84 percent.

“When I first started working with the program, I didn’t even know it existed,” Allen says . “So that was our goal, to create a campaign to drive more students to the website, give them great content there and through social media and just help them understand that there are tools to help them budget and pay for college.”

He took to the work easily, says Karemah Manselle, associate director of the Office of Student Financial Assistance, who credits Allen with helping the program grow so quickly.

“Andrew immediately began to come up with creative ways to reach the student body and developed phenomenal marketing pieces,” she says. “He has truly has been an integral part of the branding of the Cent$ible Knight$ program.”

The program has been recognized by lend.edu as one of the top 50 financial-literacy programs on a college campus, she says.

“[Andrew] is a visionary and talented young man. Additionally, he is humble and well-rounded,” Manselle says. “He managed to maintain a high GPA while working two jobs and being actively involved. He is a true embodiment of the . Andrew truly has all the requisite tools needed to chart his own path.”

As part of his campus job, Allen says he learned a great deal about marketing on a college campus.  Along the way, he’s taken the very advice he helps promote and graduated without major debt.

“The skills promote[d] there, they work,” Allen says.

His freshman year, he struggled financially and took out a student loan.

“I didn’t want my parents to sacrifice their resources for me, because it [was] hard for them,” he says. “They helped me all they could, but I didn’t want that burden on them.”

So he got some help from financial-aid advisors, made the most of scholarships and applied for financial aid early. He was on a budget, which he stuck to faithfully, although he admitted it was tough.

“I really needed a car and I saved up for that,” he says. “I wanted to pay off the $1,200 in student loans I had [at the time too.] But I’m stuck to the budget. I needed that car first.”

Allen has considered going back to school for another degree later because for him “the learning process never stops.”

As for his family, they were worried when he left South Florida for Orlando, and “they called every day,” he says. But after a few years they got into “the groove of things,” he says.

“My family knew this was something I could achieve, to get my degree and reach the next level,” he says. “I got awards for academics. I took my education very seriously. They see I am focused and that I’m not worried about trivial things.”