SUMMER 2022
What's Ne[x]t for Our Scholarship Winners
FEATURING BRYN HAMMOCK & OTHER RECIPIENTS Also Inside:
Jump Start Recipients TikTok Lemonade How Sweet It Is In Savannah Celebrating HBCUs in Atlanta GE O RGI ASO W N . O RG/ B LO G
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IN THIS ISSUE 03 04 Q&A with Scholarship Winner What's Ne[x]t for Scholarship 08 Winners From the Editor
Notes from our editor, Brianne Heape
We always want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, or what topic you want to see us cover. Send your comments and questions to bjheape@georgiasown.org and we’ll see what we can do!
Featuring Bryn Hammock
Featuring Alexa Bell and Zaria Owens
10 Viral Lemonade Recipe 12 How Sweet It Is In Savannah 14 Celebrating Atlanta's HBCUs 15 Jump Start Winners
Want to know more about what’s going on with Georgia’s Own or Ne[x]t? Like us on Facebook (facebook.com/ georgiasown) and follow us on Twitter (@georgiasown) and Instagram (@georgiasowncu)! You can also visit the blog at georgiasown.org/blog to find money-related articles and tips. We want you to be a part of the conversation, so let us know what you’re thinking!
Featuring 20 students from across Georgia
TikTok users are raving about this one
A sweet tooth's guide to Savannah Featuring grant recipients
FROM THE COVER
Bryn Hammock FROM THE EDITOR
The 2022 What’s Ne[x]t and Jump Start winners are in, and narrowing down these recipients from an incredible pool of applicants was more difficult than ever. We awarded a total of $35,000 to 23 deserving students. Get to know What’s Ne[x]t for three young women on pages 4-9. The 20 Jump Start winners are pictured on pages 10-11. Each of these students demonstrated an exceptional commitment to their community, a strong academic background, and a bright vision for their future. We are beyond proud to have all of the winners in the Georgia’s Own family. Learning more about the Georgia’s Own scholarship winners is always a highlight for me. It’s so incredible to see young generations making such an impact in their communities. Bryn’s Tiny Hugs initiative,
Alexa’s passion for art, and Zaria’s nonprofit foundation are so inspiring. Their stories are proof that there is so much good in this world. One of my most favorite cities to visit is Savannah, Georgia. The city is famous for it’s historical charm, but also some delectable desserts. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, we have a list of sweet spots in Savannah that you will want to try. For Black History Month, we celebrated Atlanta’s HBCUs by selecting three outstanding individuals to light up the skyline. Two recipients received $1,000 grants toward their area of study! Meet them on page 15.
GO EO R GASO IASOWN. ORG/ R G /B BLO GE RGI WN.O LO G
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Describe how you felt when learning you were the recipient of the What’s Ne[x]t scholarship. I was shocked. I knew there would be a lot of great candidates for the award. I just felt humbled that Georgia’s Own thought so highly of my project. You mentioned you have been a life-long fan of Auburn University. How excited are you to attend this fall? I am so excited. I was born into an Auburn family and have been going to football games there since birth. I have family in the area and it feels like a second home to me, which should make the transition easier. I knew going out of state would be a challenge financially, and the Georgia’s Own award really helps me cut down on that cost.
BRYN
Q&A with What's Ne[x]t Scholarship winner
Hammock
$8,000 scholarship winner Buford, Georgia Pre-Med, Auburn University What are you most looking forward to doing, seeing, or participating in at Auburn University? founder of Tiny Hugs @bryn_hammock I want to be active on campus and in the community in numerous ways from volunteering to supporting Auburn at sporting events. I
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plan to get started by going through sorority recruitment in early August, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve already connected with my three roommates, and I’m excited to spend time with them. You are a pre-med major. Is there a specific area of medicine you would like to practice? I am pretty wide open at this point, but I’ve always had an interest in the medical field. I want to explore a number of options in the healthcare industry, but my biggest passion is working with children. Your passion for healthcare and babies is evident in your Tiny Hugs project. Can you tell us more about how you came up with the idea for Tiny Hugs? I heard about the success of a similar product from a family friend, and some are available for purchase, but they are expensive. I wanted
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Baby Emilia in the NICU with her Tiny Hug.
"I am so thankful that Georgia’s Own can help me and other students with our college education as we work toward our future goals. It means so much to see the Credit Union making that kind of impact in our community." - Bryn
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Can you share more with us on the impact Tiny Hugs had during COVID? Visitation to hospitals was so limited during the pandemic for all patients, and that was the case for new parents and their NICU babies. Parents were limited to two hours with their babies, so Tiny Hugs filled that void. They cradle the babies as if they’re being held, promoting growth and development during those tough times. Also, Tiny Hugs can take on the scent of a parent, which is comforting to the babies when they can’t be held by mom or dad. How do you balance your education, community service, and all of the other programs you are a part of? It took a lot of scheduling to make sure I was on top of things. Education always came first, but I made sure to carve out time for volunteer work, sports, family, and so many other things. I probably didn’t get all the sleep I needed a lot of days, but it was worth it in the end.
to donate Tiny Hugs to hospitals to keep new parents from having to spend money on something that helps their premature babies. This was particularly necessary during the COVID pandemic, when I worked on my project. How did it feel to increase your goal, and to sew and distribute more than 100 Tiny Hugs across Georgia? It was surprising and satisfying to see how quickly things spread from my initial goal. You always wonder how something like that will be received, which made it so rewarding that the number of Tiny Hugs produced grew so quickly and that it spread from my local hospital to seven other hospitals in Georgia. What is your plan to continue the Tiny Hugs project? My team has been able to continue production of the Tiny Hugs when they have been requested. We were approached this week to make another donation of Tiny Hugs for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Where do you see yourself in ten years? Hopefully, working a job that makes me happy in the medical field. Like I said before, ideally working in some way to help children. Being happily married and having children of my own are important to me down the road, too. What advice would you give seniors preparing for college? Put in the work at the high school level and that will open doors for you at top colleges. GPA and test scores matter, but so do community service and extracurricular activities. My advice would be to go with your heart and go to the place where you will be happy. My heart has always been in Auburn. Tell us a fun fact that most people would not know about you. I really love all things horror. I love watching horror movies and going to haunted houses during Halloween season. It’s something that most people don’t expect me to like from looking at me.
ALEXA Bell
$5,000 scholarship winner Decatur, Georgia Film and TV, New York University
Attending NYU has been a dream of mine since I participated in their Future Filmmakers Program. It was then that I discovered my interest in film. The program was a preview of the possibilities of a film education at NYU. I was introduced to the basics of filmmaking through a snippet of the curriculum, which was catered to my visual and hands-on learning preference. Leaving the program with such a positive experience, I knew I would not only flourish as a person, but as a storyteller, inspired by the unique qualities of my peers, the intelligence of my professors, and the engaging structure of my classes. From an early age, I was always drawing, writing, dancing, painting, and into various other arts. I decided to become a film major because it allows me to combine many aspects of differing art forms into one media. It is my hope to use film as a means to influence the world through narratives displaying the unique struggles of the Black community. Often people of the Black community struggle due to lack of access to proper mental health treatment. This results in an endless cycle of poverty, drug addiction, or violence. While these are heavier topics, I hope to create films that advocate for change. Being accepted into NYU was exciting and lifechanging. However, it was extremely stressful to navigate how I would pay for college. I spent a great deal of my senior year applying for scholarships to make this dream possible. I will never forget the call saying I was the recipient of the What’s Ne[x]t scholarship.
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ZARIA
Owens $2,000 scholarship winner Hampton, Georgia Health Sciences, High Point University Founder of Charlie's Hope Foundation @zariaowens21
When I was 16 years old, I started my own 501(c) (3) nonprofit, Charlie’s Hope Foundation. Through this foundation, I help people in need through donations to organizations around the community. My goal is to help people live happier, healthier lives. Through Charlie’s Hope Foundation, I have assembled and distributed over 200 care packages with hygienic supplies to a homeless shelter and nursing home. Some of the care packages were donated to hurricane relief victims, too. In addition to care packages, I have organized an initiative to collect school supplies for a local tutoring center. One initiative with Charlie’s Hope Foundation that I am very proud of is “Charlie’s Hope Closets.” With this drive, school supplies and canned goods are collected and available to children in need. I have always enjoyed helping others. Before Charlie’s Hope Foundation, I spent a great deal of time volunteering with a local hospital and various events in the community. However, I still felt the desire to do more. My grandfather was a prominent leader in his community, known for helping others, and it inspired me to step up and do more. I thought to myself, “If he could pave a path and do great things, then I can do it too!” In an effort to carry on his legacy and my desire to help others, Charlie’s Hope Foundation was formed. Ten years from now, I hope to be a physician assistant caring for patients here in Georgia and continuing to serve the community through Charlie’s Hope.
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JUMP START WINNERS
Left to right, top to bottom: Anzley Jarrett, Amari Cody, Andrew Lowry, Ariel Nobles, Ashton Engram, Austin Lusane, James "Nick" Chambless, Jasmine Killheffer, Jayden Mango, Johnathan Haywood,
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Congratulations to our 2022 Jump Start Scholarship winners. In addition to our annual What’s Ne[x]t Scholarship, we awarded $1,000 to 20 students selected by a panel of judges who considered academic record, school and community service, and an essay telling us their goals for the future.
Landon Conley, Lawrence Carpenter, Madison Smith, Michael Pratt, Morgan Shiver, Richard Williams, Shamar Lane, Travis Mansfield, Victorias Chester, and Zykyia Price.
TikTok
Viral Lemonade
Recipe
How to: What you need: 1 lemon sliced thin
1/2 cup of fresh sqeezed lemon juice (juice of 3-4 lemons)
1/3 cup of sweetened condensed milk 1/3 cup of granulated sugar 3 cups of cold water
Slice 1 lemon into thin slices and add
to a pitcher full of ice
Squeeze 3-4 lemons to get 1/2 cup
of lemon juice
Add granulated sugar and
sweetened condensed milk
Stir until the sugar is dissolved
Pour the lemon, sugar, and milk
mixture into the pitcher of ice Add 3 cups of cold water Serve and enjoy!
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HOW
Sweet Savannah
IT IS IN
You can find a sweet spot in just about all 22 squares in Savannah, Georgia. Famous for their pecan pralines and the original Leopold’s Ice Cream, Savannah touts a unique dessert experience. Whether you are a local or a tourist, Savannah is the place to be when you’ve got a sweet tooth.
Back In The Day Bakery
Lulu’s Chocolate Bar
Below Zero
Mabel’s Cupcake Emporium
Byrd's Famous Cookies
The Peach Cobbler Factory
Le Cafe Gourmet
The Pink House
Le Macaron
River Street Sweets
Leopold’s Ice Cream
Founded in 1919 by three brothers from Greece. George, Peter, and Basil Leopold mastered the art of dessert making and created Leopold’s Ice Cream in historic downtown Savannah. The now worldfamous ice cream is a Savannah tradition.
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River Street Sweets has been creating world-famous pralines since 1973, along with countless other handmade southern candies. Stop by the storefront for samples and see how these southern treats are made.
Savannah’s Candy Kitchen
DR. JUANA MENDENHALL Morehouse College
Dr. Juana Mendenhall is a chemistry professor at Morehouse College who is conducting groundbreaking research on body-safe plastics and polymers in her lab that are used to rebuild damaged knees and mitigate pain. The Georgia's Own Foundation is awarding Dr. Mendenhall a $1,000 grant to continue her efforts.
JORDAN GRANT Savannah State University
Jordan Grant is a football player at Savannah State University who was commended for his leadership both on and off the field. Jordan spends his spare time volunteering in the community. The Georgia's Own Foundation is awarding Jordan a $1,000 grant to further his education.
DR. PATRICE WHITE Savannah State University
Dr. Patrice White is a College of Education professor at Savannah State University. Dr. White was praised for going above and beyond for all of her students, as well as her strong support for the College of Education and Savannah State.
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Connect with Georgia’s Own!
facebook.com/georgiasown | @georgiasown | youtube.com/georgiasowncu | @georgiasowncu
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