Be a part of the Village to Send Ianni to Howard
My name is Ianni Douglas and I am a 17 year old graduate of New Rochelle HS. In an effort to help my parents reduce the cost of sending me to Howard University in the fall, I have decided to ask The Village to help us. First I would like to begin by letting everyone know that I was awarded $15,000 per year in merit scholarship money from Howard, which leaves my parents with a $30,000 balance each year for the next 4 years for an approximate total of $120,000.
Why go to Howard you may ask? Well, Vice President Kamala Harris is an alumni of Howard, just to name drop! My cousin is also a proud alumni! I am considering majoring in Biology and with Howard being the highest producer of Black doctors in the country, I felt Howard would be an excellent college to prepare me for a career in medicine. I made a conscious decision to attend an HBCU at the end of my sophomore year wanting to be in an environment where Black excellence is nurtured, encouraged, and embraced. And Howard is considered the Mecca of HBCU’s; the Harvard of HBCU’s; the highest producer of Black Doctors and Lawyers of any other college in the country.
I have worked hard to maintain a B+ average throughout high school, while taking challenging classes such as AP Physics, AP Calculus, a college class from Syracuse University, along with a host of honors level classes. The challenging part came from doing all that while playing varsity and Elite AAU basketball from freshman year until tearing my labrum the end of junior season. My not playing anymore made it impossible to get an athletic scholarship.
After speaking with my dad and family about HBCU's and the best one to attend, I learned about Howard. I attended an HBCU college fair in Manhattan and obtained more information to help me realize Howard offered me the most options to pursue my education in a comfortable environment. And then COVID hit!
My dad contracted COVID in March of last year when the virus was fairly new. He was fortunate that he didn’t have to be hospitalized, although he did not escape clean. On January 26th of this year my dad suffered a heart attack, due to having COVID. He had a 100 % blockage in an artery on the right side of his heart due to a tear in his heart lining caused by COVID. His 4 day post operation stay in the hospital has left the family with some unexpected hospital bills. On June 4th my dad had another procedure to open an artery on the left side of his heart, which equals another hospital bill. My family has suffered a lot of loss and illness and that makes me more determined to go to Howard and make my family proud!
They say, “It takes a village to raise a child,” so I turn to my immediate family and extended family to ask for your support. I think my parents did a fairly decent job of getting me this far, but they could use some help from the village to get me farther. Any donation is not too small, as I am prayerful that collectively the villagers will make a dent in my overall cost. I would like to thank those who are able to help, and thank those who wanted to help but could not. What’s important is that God knows your heart! Thanks for taking the time to read this and God Bless You All!
