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Five Baltimore City high school seniors earn full-tuition McDaniel-CollegeBound Scholarships

Five Baltimore City high school seniors were surprised by McDaniel College’s Admissions and Financial Aid Offices over Zoom with full-tuition McDaniel-CollegeBound Scholarships. The scholarship includes full tuition for all four years at McDaniel College (a value of more than $160,000).

Taylor-Simone Johnson Zoom Announcement

Aza Smith, Financial Aid specialist, and Stephanie Stahler, senior associate director of Admissions, surprise Taylor-Simone Johnson with the announcement that she received a full-tuition McDaniel-CollegeBound Scholarship.  

Five Baltimore City high school students were surprised by McDaniel College’s Admissions and Financial Aid Offices over Zoom with full-tuition scholarships to attend McDaniel as part of the incoming Class of 2024.

The McDaniel-CollegeBound scholarships cover full tuition for all four years at McDaniel (a value of more than $160,000).

McDaniel has partnered with the CollegeBound Foundation since 2008 to provide full-tuition scholarships to Baltimore City high school students. McDaniel’s Admissions Office annually interviews students from CollegeBound Foundation-staffed Baltimore City public high schools for the scholarship.

Akinwumi Akinfenwa

Akinwumi Akinfenwa, a senior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, is a member of the track and field team, where he serves as co-captain. He won the Maryland Indoor State Championship in the 4x400m in both 2018 and 2019.

Akinfenwa aspires to be a neurosurgeon. He has participated in the MERIT Health Leadership Academy since his sophomore year and has completed 60+ hours of clinical rotations across Johns Hopkins medical campuses and other Baltimore clinics. He has also conducted research on the relationship between colorectal cancer and microbes in Dr. Cynthia Sears laboratory at Johns Hopkins, as well as researched and presented as part of the Health Disparities Project on the connection between lead poisoning and low-income communities. During his junior year, he won the National Institute on Aging (NIA)/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Symposium Competition and he earned second place in the Cancer Biology Annual Retreat (CABTRAC) Diversity Pipeline Competition.

Karen Cuahutepitzi

Karen Cuahutepitzi is a senior at Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy. Cuahutepitzi, who ranks No. 1 in her senior class, has been involved with Adelante Latina, an “after-school academic enrichment and college preparatory program for promising Latina girls attending Baltimore City high schools, according to its website.

She has participated in the MERIT Health Leadership Academy since her sophomore year and has completed 60+ hours of clinical rotations across Johns Hopkins medical campuses and other Baltimore clinics. She has also completed multiple dual enrollment courses to further her preparation for college and her long-term aspiration to become a midwife.

Karen Cuahutepitzi - McDaniel-CollegeBound scholarship recipient

Kayla Gauger

Kayla Gauger, a senior at Green Street Academy, is on track to be valedictorian of her senior class. She has served as manager of her high school’s football and basketball teams and has also written for the Green Street Gazette student newspaper.

Gauger had a summer internship through Law Links, a program that places Baltimore City high school juniors and seniors in law firms and law-related agencies, at the Homeless Person Representation Project. She aspires to be a lawyer to help those convicted of misdemeanors and those falsely accused.

Kayla Gauger - McDaniel-CollegeBound Scholarship recipient

Taylor-Simone Johnson is a senior at Western High School. She is involved at Western as a member of the environmental club and stage crew. She also has played on Western’s softball team and was inducted into the National Honor Society. In 2019, she launched her own hair company, The Kulture Killer, that she hopes to expand in the future.

During the summer prior to her junior of high school, she interned at the Juvenile Justice Center for the Office of the States Attorney for Baltimore City. She aspires to become a Civil Rights lawyer and work to help those who are falsely imprisoned.

Valerie Reown

Valerie Reown, a senior at City Neighbors High School, wants to bring about change in society through her art and writing.

During Summer 2019, Reown participated in a Bloomberg Arts Internship at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore that allowed her to explore careers in the arts. She has been working on a graphic novel since she was in 10th grade that she hopes to publish in the future.

View the scholarship announcement videos:

Valerie Reown - McDaniel-CollegeBound Scholarships
Apr 28, 2020

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