The Greater Philadelphia Chapter was founded in the fourth quarter of 2008. In spring 2009 the chapter awarded two Carson Scholarships to fourth grader Treycjon Solomon of Samuel K. Faust Elementary and sixth grader Valeria Ochoa, a student at Lafayette Elementary.
In his essay, Treycjon highlighted his desire to take his fellow students to a homeless shelter to demonstrate where they might end up without an education. Dedicated to excellence, Treycjon mentions winning the scholarship as motivation to continue to strive for academic excellence, “It shows me if you do hard work you can achieve many things.”
Valeria recognizes the worth of the scholarship’s contribution towards her goal of becoming a doctor. “It will help me pay for tuition or books,” the driven twelve year old said of the 1,000 dollar start towards her college education, “I always wanted to go to college and I want to make a difference some day.”
The short-term goal of the chapter is to fund and award a Carson Scholarship for every school in the Bucks County School District with a long term vision of discovering the promise of the youth throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.
19 Philadelphia scholars were recognized on Sunday, April 6, 2014 at the Maryland Awards Banquet held at Martin’s West in Baltimore, MD. Since the beginning of the Philadelphia chapter, 54 Philadelphia scholars have been honored. This year’s scholars are as impressive as ever and we are very proud of their continued exceptional accomplishments. 18 Carson Scholars were also recognized for their continued academic achievement.