Meet B2baB's first ever scholarship recipient!
Dear Friends of Blessed to Be a Blessing,
Here is Daphney Phradestin!
"I am excited to focus on this life-changing experience to gain new skills and self-awareness to self-reflect and a better understanding of what works or not within my life."
Daphney is a senior majoring in Biology and minoring in Business Fundamentals at the University of Colorado Denver and but will be spending the first semester of her senior year abroad in Seoul, South Korea with CIEE. We at Blessed to Be a Blessing are excited to assist her in this life changing journey and welcome her as our first ever scholarship recipient.
Daphney has dreams of becoming a dermatologist and serving communities of color. She is particularly interested in researching skin diseases and providing education to these groups. By doing this, she hopes to serve as an example to young girls of color, so that they too can see themselves in the medical field. She looks forward to serving in both in her home country of Haiti, and in Denver.
While abroad Daphney is excited to experience Korean culture first hand, meet new people and improve on her Korean language skills. Additionally, Daphney is looking forward to utilizing volunteer options available through CIEE to get involved with the local healthcare and learn how the system works in South Korea.
Achieving the Dream of a Decade
Our founder, Shawn, first had a dream of creating a scholarship for students from Denver to study abroad nearly a decade ago when he studied abroad himself in 2014. This is the dream that became B2baB and has now been fully achieved.
A note from our Founder:
I turned 30 a week ago. With the changing of a decade comes much contemplation of the previous one. I have spent a mere 30 months in the US during my twenties. I have traveled and lived across the globe and developed into a global citizen. I have experienced cultures and seen sights never before imagined by a child growing up in inner-city Denver. I am blessed beyond my comprehension and it all can lead back to taking a leap of faith and choosing to pursue studying abroad a decade ago.
As many of you already know, while being away these past years I have always wanted to give back, wanted to help more of my friends, my family and my community be able to have similar experiences, to see the world that we are all apart of, and find their place in it. The dream started with just creating a scholarship but has led to the creation of what I believe can be an amazing organization in the years to come. I am so excited to start my new decade by making this dream come to life, having B2baB's Equal Access Pipeline operating in full effect and helping Daphney have the experience of a lifetime.
Thank you to you all for your support and contributions that have made this scholarship and our Equal Access Pipeline possible. We could not do this without you and this achievement belongs to all of us. Together we have:
Held informational programs/sessions with over 100 students introducing them to international education.
Blessed 20 local low-income students with passports.
Granted B2baB's first ever study abroad scholarship.
This is only the beginning.
Together we are, Blessed to Be a Blessing
-Shawn