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Please send notes for the editor and feedback to Elias Olson, Communications & Data Coord. | elias.olson@hamiltonscholars.org

Some fall quarter highlights:

• The 2022 Hamilton Award Cohort application launched, accepting applications through January 26th, 2022; please encourage high school juniors that'd be a good fit to apply

• We renovated our Program Overview and Hamilton Award website pages

• We concluded our Alum led HamFam Fireside Chats series; speakers included Bea DC Blin ('09), Nereyda Luna ('15), Lauren Prox ('14), TJ Thomas ('16), Alia Kabba ('16), and Nazshonnii Brown ('12)

• Adriana Maciel Metal ('17), researched with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars and NOAA Hollings Scholarship Program

• Paloma Del Valle ('21), was named the 2022 Distinguished Young Woman of New Mexico

• Team member, Lynell Engelmyer, was featured on the podcast Inside College Admissions: Money Matters: A Walkthrough of Financial Aid for College

• Reem Numan ('21) premiered "A Hero's Journey" as part of Argus Quartet 2021 Composers Institute

• AHS' Mikala Lain ('15), attended The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) in Atlanta Georgia

• AHS' Kelly Herrington and Lynell Engelmyer, attended The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) in Seattle, Washington

• You helped us raise $24,480 during Giving Tuesday

• Thank you to those that have already donated to our End of Year Campaign: Growing Where We are Rooted. If you have not donated, please consider an end of year gift today

• Three options to passively support AHS: (1) Give with Bing; (2) Amazon Smile; and (3) Fred Meyer Community Rewards

The paralysis of perfection and imposter syndrome are two things everyone — especially Hamilton Scholars — struggles with, according to 2010 Hammie Khalid Osman. But, to Osman, the key is accepting the inevitability of change and understanding that life’s puzzle pieces will fall where they may — if you let them.

Osman, a Cairo-born, first-generation college graduate from Miami University of Ohio, Coca-Cola Scholar, and Fullbright recipient, says reaching that understanding meant pivoting through hardship.

His first pivot came at 18 years old after losing his father to cancer during a summer internship in New York.

"Growing up, my father was my biggest inspiration," Osman said. "New York was my first time being away and I realized — oh, man — what am I going to do? I lost my guidance."

Grappling with immense grief and struggling academically, Osman said his pivot meant following his gut and taking a break from school to travel before returning to finish his Bachelor's of Science in Business.

Afterwards, Osman — never one to sit idle — continued on his journey of self-discovery and focused on making the most of developing transferable skills.

"You come to a point in life where you realize that nobody has the right answers even though they pretend to," Osman said. "Life's going to throw you curve balls, and it doesn't do you any good to lose your calm and overreact from a place of emotion."

For Osman, learning this art of pivoting — grappling with reality while navigating the complexities and challenges of life — took lots of trial and error.

During the 2021 Texas Leader Weekend Gap Year Panel, Osman shared about being intrinsically motivated — how Hammies can and should be ambitious, but to not let their value be predicated on extrinsic motivation or validation. But, just like learning to pivot, this took realizing it for himself.

Hammies are poster kids — everyone's doing incredible things – I felt like I had to constantly prove myself. But, you realize that everyone has unique motivators and drivers. When I got to college and my father passed, I thought, 'who am I doing this for?' People build an image of you that you feel pressure to live up to, and when you [remove] accolades or grades — what do you have left?

Osman shared that AHS and its founder, George Cox, offered guidance during those pivotal moments; Cox helped Osman see a path forward, even when Osman couldn't see it for himself.

"I remember George saying, 'Life doesn’t always play the tune we wish to hear even as we cry out to hear distant drums that remain mute; silent.” Osman said.

Being a Hammie, Osman said he never felt judged for presenting his authentic self; AHS wasn't looking for him to fit an archetype or be something he wasn't.

"I've always liked being in an environment of people who'll push me to think differently and challenge myself," Osman said. "That's what I find with AHS!"

After sharing at 2021 Texas Leader Weekend, Osman looks to continue his real-estate virtual tour and staging services small business with the goal of attending law school. For so long, Osman said he resisted changes that came into his life because of how they conflicted with his vision — or the image that others built of him — but now, he says he knows better.

"I firmly believe that life’s puzzle pieces fall in place the way they're supposed to if you let them," Osman said. "And, at the end of the day, I'd like to be someone like George — to have the same impact on others that he had in my life."

2021 Hammie, DJ Wynter traveled far and wide, connecting with Scholars and staff across the HamFam, including: Benito Angel Gonzalez ('20), Chris Badillo ('20), Elias Olson (staff), Evelyn Nut ('20), Kirsten Chung ('21), Mikala Lain ('15; staff). "I've been honored to meet such amazing people," Wynter said; he plans to continue meeting with more in the coming year.

2021 Hammie, Paloma Del Valle, was named the 2022 Distinguished Young Woman of New Mexico, winning the talent, self-expression, and scholastic events. Distinguished Young Women is a national scholarship program promoting and rewarding scholarship, leadership, and talent in young women. Del Valle will head to nationals in Mobile, Alabama next to represent her state!

This past October, 2021 Hammie Reem Numan premiered “A Hero’s Journey” to the world — a piece she composed as part of her participation in the Argus Quartet 2021 Composers Institute.

“My piece was inspired by Japanese media I enjoyed during my childhood, including Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, and Studio Ghibli movies,” Numan said. “The stories told were enhanced by the music that accompanied the protagonists' journeys — I hope my piece emulates that.”

Argus’ Composers Institute is dedicated to mentoring and performing the works of underrepresented high school composers; Numan and five other students were selected to worked with BIPOC composers Carlos Simon and David Sandford. At the conclusion of the program, the institute held a virtual concert debuting all five of the students works. The full performance is available to stream on YouTube.

2019 Hammie Youbin Park joins 2008 Hammie and Miami-Dade County School Board member Luisa Santos office as a student fellow.

Park also published their first piece of poetry with Dreamer by Night, a new magazine that selected Park as its featured writer.

Adriana, a 2017 Hammie, interned with the Kroeker and Munch Labs at UCSC to perform data analysis and modeling fieldwork in Tomales Bay in California! Adriana studied enterococci distributions in the region while also performing spatial surveys of seagrass and invertebrates with the support of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program and the NOAA Hollings Scholarship Program. Currently, Adriana is a senior at Yale majoring in Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Environmental Justice; her upcoming senior essay will focus on developing an environmental education curriculum that encourages self-advocacy in young students.

2013 Hammie and past staff member, Bre Legan is directing a short documentary film about Maranta Plant Shop, Milwaukee's first Black & Brown owned plant shop. Currently, they're in the editing phase with plans to release the final film before the end of the year.

Shine a spotlight

Have exciting news to share? Did you hear about a fellow Hammie's amazing accomplishment? We want to celebrate you! Fill out the spotlight form on our website so we can share the news to our entire community!

With the end of the year fast approaching, so too does the end of our Growing Where We're Rooted campaign.

The 2022 Hamilton Award application closes in January, meaning we'll soon be welcoming 40 new high-achieving, underserved young leaders to our program, providing hands-on-mentorship, and wrap-around support to help them thrive in college and beyond.

Our campaign, “Growing Where We’re Rooted,” is just as it sounds; looking to the future, our goal is to grow:

• Our number of Scholars served per year

• The number of partnerships that foster Hammie opportunities

• Our team in order to achieve more on behalf of our Hammies

• The services offered through our Empowerment Program.

Breaking the poverty cycle for these future changemakers cannot happen without your continued belief in our mission and support of our Scholars. Together, we've already raised just over $140,000, but we need your help to reach our end of year goal of $160,000.

Please know we are all thinking of you as we continue to struggle in these unprecedented times.

For our Scholars, disruption continues to be the norm since the pandemic began in 2020. Our newest Scholars are using college counseling, admissions, and scholarship services as never before. Many of our Hamilton Scholars enrolled in college continue to experience virtual classes with the same tuition costs.

To complicate matters further, many Scholars and their parents/guardians continue to face increased unemployment, housing insecurity, and food scarcity due to COVID-19.

Our growth here is to fully support our vast community of brave and determined Scholars.

Grow alongside us and help make this possible! We absolutely cannot do this important work without you and your continued belief in our mission to break poverty cycles. Please help us reach our end of year goal of $160,000, which includes pivotal supplemental emergency and internship funding for our Scholars.