Hello,

This is Eugenie George one of the scholarship recipients for the Blackhawk women's scholarship fund. Sorry it took me so long to email, but I always kept your email in my wallet when I had the opportunity to write I would remind myself to. Well, my summer has come to an end this week kicking school off with my birthday which should be pretty interesting.

I traveled to the Dominican Republic for 5 weeks by myself to get some experience on my own. It was quite an experience.  I figured because my skin color was so similar to everyone that things would be a fun. I realized in the beginning of my journey that it became a setback because many people did not take me seriously:  one, because I was a women and two because I was dark. Even though our heritage is similar (that being our ancestors are slaves and natives) no one accepted that they were black. Color was primarily the characterization of people first and their appearance later.

I came home appreciating my family and even though I had always been an oddball they support me. I definitely appreciate being an American. That is pretty much it. I am so fortunate and I can't really describe my appreciation in words because it feels so empowering. I am truly humble.

I hope to hear from you. I hope that everything is good with your family and your son.

Sincerely,
Eugenie George

Dear Blackhawk Women's Scholarship Committee,

I hope you all are doing well and had safe and fun Christmas's and New Years! My first quarter here has been extraordinary! I can honestly say that this has been one of the most fun, rewarding and academically challenging experiences of my life. Surprisingly, I was excited to come back after my Christmas break!

Upon first arriving to UCLA, I was very apprehensive of what to expect and what good or bad experiences I would come across my first quarter in college. I was both scared and excited to experience life as a true college student. Coming from a High School where standards were low, I was apprehensive to academically compete against other top students of different High Schools. But at the end I can proudly say I did well! I received an 'A' in my Math course, a 'B+' in my Work, Labor and Social Justice Course, and in my most stressful and strenuous class a solid 'B-' in my Chemistry course! Though my major is still undeclared under the College of Letters & Science, I am still exploring the numerous life science majors that UCLA has to offer.

My greatest challenge at UCLA has by far been the academic aspect of college life - being able to make the transition between High School Standards to that of College Standards. Especially to such a school that's one of the top UC's in California. Competition is extremely high at UCLA, and coming from a High school to such low standards, I had to work triple times harder than other students. My most difficult and intense class this past fall quarter has been Chemistry 14A. The course served as a continuation from High School Chemistry, which I took almost two years prior to the start of college. Coming into UCLA under a life science major, I had to relearn High School chemistry all while learning 'Quantum Mechanics' the first week we started! With hours of studying and tutoring from my peers I was able to do well in both my Midterm and Final, receiving a grade I am very proud of!

In my free time, I have participated in extra-curricular activities. UCLA offers a variety of clubs and activities on campus. In the first week of school, UCLA held a 'Clubs Day' event in which a majority of campus clubs and organizations advertised and recruited new members. Seeing such variety of clubs and organizations I was anxious to join as many as I could - but I knew that I needed to take it slow my first quarter here. I thus joined the Red Cross Club and am planning to join the Circle K community service Club this quarter. I also participated in residential hall events including a trick-or-treat for underprivileged children in dangerous neighborhoods. This gave me the opportunity to meet new people on my floor and make a few very good friends!

Overall, my college experience has been thus far amazing. I honestly love college and the experiences it has given me. I've learned so much more than I expected and am able to start my journey to a successful future. Thank you Blackhawk Women's Scholarship Committee for the financial aid you have supplemented me with along with the opportunity and moral support you have embedded into my strive to excel in college. I could not have done any of this without each of your contribution. Please give my regards to anyone who has helped in anyway. There are no words to describe the gratitude and appreciation I feel for your contribution and support for my future. I will do all of you proud!

Sophia Liem
Freshman at University of California Los Angeles

Women of the Blackhawk Women’s Scholarship Fund,

Hello! I have now finished my first semester at UC Berkeley and I only have good things to say about it! Although the classes were difficult and the competition fierce, the amount of information I learned and the knowledge I gained about life, responsibility and living on my own was priceless. As of now I am still undeclared but I am considering Nutritional Sciences with an emphasis in Physiology and Metabolism as my future major. For my first semester, I took Psychology, Art History, English, and Math lA (my first of two semesters of calculus at Berkeley). My favorite class was psychology because I felt that it helped me view the world around me much differently and it also explained a lot of things I have always wondered about. My least favorite class was calculus: I spent almost all of my life doing math. I went to every single office hours, math tutoring, never missed a single discussion section nor lecture and I still had a very hard time. I am not looking forward for next semester's math at all. Next semester I will be taking Chemistry, Math 16B (my second semester of calculus), Philosophy, Gospel Choir, and Nutritional Science. I will in addition be working at the Eye Center on campus and hopefully join an intramural soccer team (they fill up very fast so it’s difficult to get on a team). Yes, my second semester will be quite busy and difficult but I'm looking forward to it! I did not want to spread myself thin concerning extracurricular activities although there were many very interesting clubs on campus, so I only joined a few. My favorite club is the Ethiopian Student Union because it is where I have made some of my good friends and it is a community I can always trust to have my back and support me. It is true when people say that college were the best years of their life! I am thoroughly enjoying it!

I did not get campus housing until too late so I am living "off campus" but it is actually closer to the campus than all the rest of the dorms. My place is built just exactly like the campus dorms but with an extra plus: each room has its own bathroom! I only have to share with my roommates, but I am living in a quad so there are 4 of us total. It is still better than sharing with say 35 people like a floor bathroom or with both boys and girls. I really love my floor mates and I consider myself blessed to have everything worked out so well! And I get to see my family often living so close, and my dad actually works down the street for the City of Berkeley so we have lunch sometimes. I cannot thank you all enough for the scholarship you all provided because it has helped me tremendously!

I hope all is well for you all and Happy New Year!

Hannah Yemane

Dear Blackhawk Women's Scholarship Committee,

Thank you so much for awarding me the prestigious honor the Blackhawk Women's Club scholarship for the 2008-2009 school years. I hope you have received the thank you notes I sent earlier in the summer!

This fall I began attending UC Berkeley, and I have been enjoying myself and my studies immensely here. I know I will continue to thrive academically as well, thanks to the support of your scholarship.

From my first moments on campus as a college student, I was filled with such excitement for what opportunities lay ahead of me.

I was literally star struck knowing that my anthropology professor had actually worked on the Catal Hoyuk site and Fort Ross archaeological sites I had read about in past school textbooks, and that his graduate instructors had participated in projects I remembered reading about in National Geographic a few months earlier. I found archaeology interesting and surprisingly relevant towards everyday life. Although I do not necessarily see myself becoming the next Indiana Jones in the very near future, I gained a great appreciation for the truths we can uncover and interpretations one can make about the past by examining the artifacts and analyzing evidence from material culture to build a picture. I was delighted when I achieved the unicorn of an A+, my first official grade at UC Berkeley!

I also enjoyed the challenges presented to me in probably my most challenging class, Western Civilizations. In this course, I had to read on average about 800 pages of translated ancient Greek, cuneiform, or Latin per week and write analytical essays comparing cross-cultural, cross-temporal, cross-stylistic, cross-political, cross-social and cross-economic attributes of ancient Near Eastern and Classical cultures. The two professors and team of graduate students chose to not explore history through a textbook, but rather through the primary documents of those time periods preserved in translated stories. So really, this course was a study of history with respect to literature, or an exercise with literature to uncover history. It was challenging to extract historical fact from legends and recorded myths, but it became exciting when I began seeing patterns and gaining insight into greater meanings. There was a lot of comparing in that class, and it always somehow had to get tied back into the bigger question of how western civilization managed to come about from all of those highly diverse and unique foundations. Although I doubt I will end up pursuing a career that so heavily bases its focus on the study of ancient cultures, I know I walked away with valuable skills in analysis and I am positive I became a better writer and thinker as a result of my participation. I know this because I walked away with the highest grade for the final exam, that was entirely essay based, and felt that I earned every ounce of that A.

Probably my most favorite class was my BioEngineering discovery course that examined the role of stem cell and genetics research in contemporary international society. Not only did I have to utilize knowledge of biology, chemistry and public policy to succeed in this debate-formatted seminar course, but I had to learn how to uncover bias and evaluate ethics in delicate situations. I am pleased to report to your club that Dr. Irina Convoy, was so impressed with my final project (discussing the use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a model of how to correctly appropriate limited federal funds to medical research and further insure equal representation of all socio-economic situations of patients to equally receive high end treatments in the future, such as cellular regenerative therapies) that she requested I be allowed to return as an assistant facilitator to one of the graduate students this upcoming semester, even though I am only going to be a second semester first year! I hope to explore more possibilities with the biological science field, which is what I was originally thinking about in high school as a career, but I am now intrigued by the policy and management aspects of medical research as well.

The class I completed with the greatest feeling of accomplishment came from my involvement in my Education field course. Part of what I had feared about college was that I wasn't going to have the same opportunities to participate in my community because I was going to be stuck inside the snow globe of university student life. I found a window to reach out with this course, where I designed my own course, including a syllabus, gained proper permission and authorization to teach ballet (one of my greatest guardians in my maturation) to inner city kindergarteners in their afterschool program. This was a way for me to both stay in touch with the ballet I loved but chose college over and also give something to the community I now lived in. I learned a lot about personalities as well as working with different levels of discipline and maturity to achieve a common goal (explore ballet). My final paper for my participation in that field project class focused on the importance of personal interpretation in art, and how this is very prominent in the artistic aspirations of the kindergartners I had the pleasure of working with.

I also took a modern dance and theatre class through the theatre department, and a ballet class through the PE department to maintain some dancing in my life at university, and I was inspired to pursue the possibility of earning a dance minor at UCB, and expand my strict ballet background to include a more diverse array of dance genres.

Thank you so much for allowing me these opportunities with the generousness of your gift of scholarship. I hope to continue exploring different areas I find interesting in the opportunistic environment of UCB, and hopefully find my calling in life in the process. Happy Holidays to all, and thank you sincerely, again!

Alexis Krup

Dear Blackhawk Women's Scholarship Committee,

So far, college has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Without this amazing scholarship it would not have been possible. I have learned so much, not only academically, but about myself as well. The college experience has taught me to be responsive, independent, and most of all determined. The education I am receiving is phenomenal and will guide me on a successful path in life. Thank you so much for making this experience happen!

Alexis Angelelo