MILWAUKEE — It was another record-breaking year for the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) District as they announced that $107 million in scholarships were awarded to students during the 2021-2022 school year.
Among those students is A'Ajanae Bowie, a senior at the Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, who's now heading to college on a full-tuition scholarship.
"It just feels so unreal to me, because I never expected this to truly happen," said Bowie.
The 18-year-old, who was mainly raised by her grandmother, says growing up, she never really had a passion for school.
"I was in a bad neighborhood and no one valued education so I didn't too much care about it. I just felt like I wasn't good enough to have a good education," said Bowie.
But she says all that changed once she got to high school and saw the support she had from her teachers and guidance counselors. That encouragement inspired her to apply for scholarships her senior year.
From all the colleges she applied to, in total, Bowie was awarded $500,000 in scholarship money. She's choosing to go to Alverno College, where she was granted the Thea Bowman scholarship.
"It's a scholarship that covers your full tuition," said Bowie.
Bowie says she plans to go into the healthcare field and give back to her community. She wants other kids who ever doubted themselves to know this:
"Keep going. Don't worry about the outside things keep a straight-line view of what you want to do, but at the same time remain humble to yourself and those around you," said Bowie.
