罗达·塔诺·门卡'19
韦尔斯利学生援助协会年会
Reunion Weekend 2019
“我今天站在这里，是韦尔斯利学院荣誉毕业生，这要感谢韦尔斯利学院学生援助协会。我在加纳亚博永久官网长大，直到18岁时，我获得奖学金，在联合世界学院（通常称为UWC）攻读国际学士学位课程。”在挪威的弗莱克。我是在华盛顿大学第一次听说韦尔斯利学院的，基于我与来访的学院代表的精彩对话，我决定申请。我对韦尔斯利及其产生的令人难以置信的校友了解得越多，我就越想进入这所伟大的学校。我将花几个小时在YouTube上观看威尔斯利100的视频，以及招生办公室、现任威尔斯利学生和校友的其他几个视频。我与学院保持着密切的联系，以至于人们会以为我已经是韦尔斯利学院的学生了。我知道，我对一所尚未被录取的大学的这种依恋并不完全健康，尤其是我的大学顾问告诉我，在每年从我的UWC向该学院申请的大约五名学生中，韦尔斯利通常只录取两名。尽管如此，在2015年3月24日周二收到录取通知书之前，我还是忍不住继续跟踪学校。我的快乐是无限的，尤其是因为我得到了奖学金，因为校友会和戴维斯基金会慷慨大方。因此，在我的韦尔斯利之旅中，我几乎没有预料到任何经济困难。但和往常一样，生活还有其他计划。
”我的妈妈,他是我famil的主要过渡y as my retired dad received minimal monetary pension benefits, lost her trading business to scammers. This unfortunate incident made me and my older sister, the primary caretakers of my younger sister, who was then beginning her education at the University of Ghana as well as my parents. This role was a heavy responsibility for a 19-year-old girl about to enter college. My very first-semester was very challenging as I worked 20 hours a week between the Lulu Chow Wang and the Bates dining halls while balancing my coursework in intensive chemistry, calculus II, my first year writing class, and Intermediate Spanish to support myself and my family. This schedule left very little room for socializing; I felt very lonely and homesick, and crying myself to sleep became a nightly ritual. Discovering the Wellesley College Student Aid Society completely my life turned around at Wellesley. It served as a cushion upon which I could fall in my time of financial need which enabled me to worry less about money and have a somewhat normal college experience. Time constraints prevent me from listing all the incredible contributions this organization has made in my life, so I will list four of times the student aid society provided immense help in my time of need.
"In my sophomore year, I managed to save up enough money to travel back home to Ghana for Christmas; I hadn’t been home in almost two years, so I was really looking forward to this trip. However, I had to send this money home to help pay back some loans my mom had incurred in the process of trying to restart her trading business. I was devastated and frustrated, but I still really wanted to go back home, so I approached the student aid society for a loan/grant. I received a $1,000 grant and a $500 loan that enabled me to travel back home to see family and relax. The semester following this trip saw a significant increase in my GPA.
"After an excellent study abroad experience in Germany in the fall of my junior year, I returned to Wellesley to find that all my clothing, including items I had intended to wear during the Albright Institute winter session, had been tossed accidentally. The Student Aid Society granted me access to the clothes closet, which was already closed for the winter. Thus, I was able to dress appropriately and feel comfortable during the winter session that turned out to be one of the most formative experiences of my Wellesley career.
“在大三春季学期结束时，我得到了一个难以置信的机会，在麻省理工学院和哈佛大学的拉贡学院实习。我找到的所有住房选择都要求在入住前预付保证金和第一个月的租金。我没有存够钱，所以我向学生援助协会申请了一笔1500美元的贷款，他们很乐意借给我。因此，我能够在HIV免疫学方面进行前沿研究，最终完成了一个高级论文项目，为此我获得了令人垂涎的帕梅拉·丹尼尔斯奖学金，并在化学专业获得了荣誉。
“在我在韦尔斯利学院的最后一个学期结束前几周，我父亲病得很重；我们不确定他是否能活下来。飞回家不是一个明亚博永久官网智的经济决定，因为即将毕业的我需要存足够的钱，以便在韦尔斯利毕业后获得住房。在做了几次噩梦之后，我一直看到父亲的尸体，我向学生援助协会求助申请贷款或补助金。令我大吃一惊的是，我获得了1500美元的补助金。听到这个消息后，我立刻哭了起来；我敬畏他们的慷慨。我订了一张去加纳的往返机票，那天晚上，我几天来第一次睡得很香。我看到了我的父亲，他正在稳步康复。我们现在开玩笑说他生病只是因为他想让我回家。
"The Wellesley Student Aid Society is a great treasure of the Wellesley Community; they make Wellesley a more equitable place. They make the challenging Wellesley college experience tolerable for myself and several other students. The remarkable experience I had at Wellesley College would have been impossible without this organization. There are no words to describe my immense gratitude and appreciation for the donors and staff who keep this organization running, and I will make it my life mission to pass this generosity forward. I will end this speech by uttering thank you in three Ghanaian Languages as well as Norwegian and German.
美达我爱你！Oyi wala do!！我是伊库库！图森·塔克！丹克松！”
