Bridging Scholarship Gaps
Flexible funding allows Carolina to reward and retain exceptional students.
Flexible funding allows Carolina to reward and retain exceptional students.
Photo by Yates McConnell
A love for the Classics (Latin and Greek) led Ashley Choo-Hen ’20 to Carolina, and she’s been leaving her heelprint globally ever since. Ashley was recruited to Carolina and awarded a Carolina Scholarship, providing financial support, faculty mentoring and special program opportunities. But, when her scholarship endowment was temporarily unable to generate enough income to cover the award amount, the Cornerstone Fund allowed us to step in and make up the difference. Carolina could not bridge these types of gaps without the fund’s flexible dollars.
Ashley began learning Greek in the summer 2017, during her Summer Greek Intensive at City University of New York-Brooklyn College. Soon after, the UNC Department of Classics awarded her the Herrington Prize in Greek Poetry Recitation. “This was my first time attending the Herrington competition and to see the different, yet familiar, faces of our department reciting either the Herrington passages or poems of their choosing. It served as a lovely reminder of the unifying nature of poetry.”
Ashley continues to excel at Carolina. She is a recipient of the Manson A. Stewart Undergraduate Award for outstanding young Classicists, which the Classical Association of the Middle West and South presents to a select group of Classics majors nominated by their professors. She also received the Stacia Byers Wells Award, which is awarded to undergraduate Classics majors and minors to support travel and research. Ashley will use the award to support the teaching of Latin in Guyana, her home country, and perform independent research of Classics in a post-colonial setting. Ashley says her wish is “to reconnect with family members and to bridge these two large parts of my life.”
The impact of the opportunities afforded to Ashley by UNC and its supporters cannot be overstated. Ashley has fully embraced her passion and made a difference in the world. And, because of the Cornerstone Fund, Carolina is able to reward and retain students like Ashley who enhance the student body and this campus with their abilities and contributions.
