2020/21 L.I.F.E Scholarship Recipients - Congratulations!
The L.I.F.E. Team is proud to announce our current 2020/21 L.I.F.E. Scholarship recipients, and we hope to provide more awards as we continue to secure sponsors. L.I.F.E. has felt the impact the Pandemic has had on the lives of so many Americans, especially those living with a chronic disease, like lupus. However, our 2020 applicants made it clear that they were eager to return to the classroom to learn, acquire necessary life skills and, most importantly, achieve their dreams, despite lupus and now COVID-19!. Unfortunately, one potential recipient contracted COVID-19, but still managed to finish the semester strong. She is an inspiration to anyone facing extreme adversity.
Over the years, L.I.F.E. has helped a spectrum of individuals with lupus from those just graduating high school, already in college to those returning to college either to further their career or gain the skills needed for a new profession. Although all of the 2020 L.I.F.E. Scholarship winners demonstrate outstanding academic merit, provide service to their communities or decide to volunteer for L.I.F.E., they all have used their battle with lupus to overcome other obstacles in life. And for the first time, we have two renewed Honorary L.I.F.E. Scholarships--Hannah Brookings and Rachel White. Several part-time students also applied this year, and at least one of them will be a winner in 2020. Federal student loans, grants, and most scholarships are available only to full-time students. L.I.F.E. is the only non-profit to award merit-based scholarships to either full-time or part-time college students with lupus nationally. This encourages students undergoing intense chemotherapy or other treatments and procedures to stay in college even if they need to reduce their course load. This also helps students facing high medical bills and tuition costs. L.I.F.E. continues to develop other Scholarship Programs to help more students.
Savana Soares - Bridgewater State University, MA
“Being sick all of the time felt awful, but it felt even worse when doctors didn’t believe what I was telling them.”
Vivien Guo - New York University
“I’ve learned about myself and how I can grow, breaking every limit I thought I had. The difference between what thought I could accomplish with lupus and what I have done now shows that my potential is insurmountable.”
Kinsey Dearman - Rose State College, OK
“I want other kids who have lupus to know they are not weird or different than anyone else. If anything, they are much stronger.”
Savannah Relick - University of Georgia
“My story with lupus is intricate because it took doctors over ten years to discover what illness I was suffering from...Throughout my battle with health issues, there was always one thing that made me feel better: riding horses.”
Constance Hu - Washington University, St. Louis
“Lupus has always affected my life, and it always will affect my life. Even if the acceptance of my lifelong condition is a hard pill to swallow, I suppose that I will have to swallow it like I swallow all my medicine, every single day.”
Hailey Deeds - Brigham Young University, UT
“Running has always been my catharsis I’ve used to manage my stress…so I joined the cross-country team. Throughout practices, I was losing speed, strength and the next thing I knew, I developed a limp. It got to the point I’d wake up crying from the pain”
Whitney Carter - University of California, Berkeley
“At the age of 17, I was diagnosed with central nervous system (CNS) lupus, which caused cognitive dysfunction, vertigo, headaches, lightheadedness, seizures, and autonomic dysfunction. Due to CNS lupus, I could not read or talk in full sentences.”
Jordan Gray, University of Central Oklahoma
“I was going into my second year of nursing school to be a nurse; can I still be a nurse? Can I save people; or do I need to be saved?”
Christina Parker, University of Alabama
“why live a life without purpose? Lupus has given me better insight of my purpose and goals in life, and instead of giving up when life gets hard, I remember to keep pushing forward.”
An enormous thank-you to all of our sponsors, donors, and volunteers that make L.I.F.E. Scholarships possible. L.I.F.E. is a volunteer-based organization.