"Thank you to SMBS Inc. for providing me with the love and support to get me through 4 years of undergraduate college. I could not have reached this point without them. Special thank you to Diana and my mentor, Fanny, for constantly checking in and pushing me to do better. On to the next chapter of my life!"
~Jennifer Van, Stonybrook Class of 2020 -- Scholar #9 2016
Congratulations Jennifer Van!!!
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I am currently still an Admissions Ambassador and a Community Assistant at my school which has helped me develop my professional and leadership skills but I am now remotely doing this. I was lucky enough to be picked to come back to my campus because otherwise, I would have lost the income I receive from working my two jobs on campus. As an Admissions Ambassador, I would usually have the opportunity to give tours but now I do remote work where I just write contact letters to incoming students. My job as a Community Assistant has also changed because I have had the interesting challenge of figuring out how to build connections with those on my floor through zoom. Everyone has zoom fatigue so it can be difficult to get community members to want to come to my meetings.
This scholarship helps me cover the cost of books and this year I will hopefully be able to save it for a rainy day during COVID times. I hope to continue to further develop my leadership skills going into my last year of college by hosting more creative community-building activities through zoom and getting people to interact with one another as safely as possible. I am also in the process of job hunting which is definitely interesting but I am hopeful I will find something online.
~Lewinski Lopez Junior at St. Lawrence University Class of 2021, Scholar #10 2017
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This year is an unprecedented time for everyone. With the spread of the pandemic, many people lost their job, including my father. It was hard for my family to provide financial support for my education. Luckily, I had the S.M.B. scholarship to support me. This scholarship helped me buy books for my classes and buy school supplies such as lab materials. I am learning to spend my money wisely to pay for all my bills and budget to save money for the future. Additionally, due to the quarantine, I also dealt with poor mental health. My mood was constantly unbalanced, I was not feeling good all the time and I was very stressed. I had support from my family and S.M.B.S Inc. which helped me overcome the difficult time. Inspired by my hardship this year. I decided to join Active Minds, an organization at my school that focuses on raising awareness of mental health and teaching student to take care of their mental health. I also declared my major in psychology which is an interesting field to me because it focuses on human thought processes and behavior and I am continuing my journey in the premed field. Overall, this year tested many people including me. However, I was able to overcome it with the help of my family and the S.M.B. scholarship and although it may sounds cliche, this year taught me to be resilient and never give up. Thank you S.M.B. scholarship for the support.
~Faria Islam, Columbia University Class of 2022 -- Scholar #11 2018
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My first year of college was a complete whirlwind. I was both teaching and learning Game Design at the same time. I was and am currently working at the School of interactive Arts, which is a high school program that teaches college level game design and programming. I was able to use what I learned in class to further help educate my students about Game Design theory and principles. Every time I'd come back to them with a new piece of information or a deeper analysis of a game we were studying, I loved seeing their faces light up. With that said, my education at NYU wouldn't be possible without SMBS, which perfectly helped complete my tuition. Thank you so much, without this I wouldn't have been able to learn so many amazing things that I could apply into my work. As a result, I was promoted twice in the same month from being an Assistant Teaching Artist, to a Teaching Artist, and now a Program Manager! I will always be eternally grateful for SMBS and how much I've been able to progress with your amazing help.
Thank you,
~Darcelis Gutierrez, New York University Class of 2023 -- Scholar #12 2019
