Stephanie Minaya is from Central Dauphin East High School and was nominated by Christopher Kasian.
Stephanie has faced many challenges as a young woman and has shown resilience and determination to overcome them. Stephanie has lived a very transient lifestyle in an unstable environment. She had to learn English on her own and work a full-time job to help her mother pay bills. Due to this stress and high levels of responsibility outside of school, her grades suffered. Graduating and being successful did not seem likely.
Stephanie decided to embrace her challenges and learn to overcome them rather than dwell on them. While she continued to work almost full-time and deal with some home struggles, she realized she had to turn her grades around to be successful post-high school. She distracted herself with her pursuit of better grades and succeeded.
Mr. Kasian says of Stephanie, "I don't think Steph is a good candidate for this award; I think she is the best...What a joy it is to learn from her life story. Receiving the very fitting scholarship would be a great help to Stephanie achieving her dreams of serving people as a police officer."
Stephanie has been accepted into Central Penn College to study Criminal Justice and become a police officer.
We hope Stephanie's resilience and refusal to give up carry over into her adult life and she is very successful in all she does. Congratulations, Stephanie!