When Baltimore Scholar Brooke-Logann Williams, A&S ’15, stepped onto the Homewood Campus more than three years ago, she was excited to try everything.
“I knew that Hopkins would put so much stuff at a fingertip’s reach,” says Williams. “I wanted to do the African dance group. I wanted to do belly dancing. At one point, I even tried taekwondo. It was ridiculous.”
But then this recipient of both the Christopher H. Lee and Susan D. Ginkel Baltimore Scholarship and the Richard P. Rosenberg Baltimore Scholarship started to find activities which truly suited her.
One was the Community Impact Internship Program, now in its fifth year. Through this program, Williams worked at the Office of the Public Defender and tutored juvenile offenders charged as adults at the Baltimore City Detention Center.
“It was a lot about motivational speaking, saying, ‘Hey, you’re worth something, and I know that you can be productive,’” says Williams, who in addition to this internship has worked several part-time jobs.
Wanting another challenge, Williams spent part of her junior year in Brazil, working for an organization dedicated to empowering underprivileged women.
“The experience really confirmed for me my absolute love for really just trying to help people, and for trying to help them reach their goals and reach their missions,” according to Williams, a public health major, who will be the first person in her family to graduate from college as of this May’s commencement.
“Just last week I knew it was six months and eight days until I’d be walking across the stage,” she says. “I can’t even imagine what my grandmother’s going to do. I know there’s going to be a lot of tears.”
“Brooke-Logann has always been special to me,” says Gloria Cooper, Williams’ grandmother who primarily raised her. “I am so proud of her.”
“And I would never have gotten the opportunity to go to Brazil or even attend the Johns Hopkins University if it wasn’t for the Baltimore Scholarships,” says Williams, who adds that the program – which offers full-tuition scholarships to qualified graduates of Baltimore City public high schools – has become like a second family to her.
In the future, Williams wants to work with non-profit organizations – particularly those geared toward youth – on their business strategies, frameworks, and abilities to find self‑sustaining financial resources.
“I have been put here for a reason,” says Williams of her college experience. “I have been put here so that I can help put other youth here.”
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Topics: Alumni, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Undergraduate Student Experience, Support Scholars