Denim Fisher

High School Graduation Year: 2024
Year First Awarded the Carson Scholarship: 2022
Sponsored by: The Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation Endowment

Denim Fisher is a three-time Carson scholar who was first awarded in 2022. Denim is also a 2-time recipient of the Patterson HBCU Scholarship, a CSF program started in 2024 offering an additional scholarship opportunity to Carson Scholars who enroll in a Historically Black College or University. Denim is currently a sophomore at Spelman College where she is majoring in literature, media, and writing with a minor in comparative women’s studies.

After college, Denim hopes to move to Paris to pursue a Master of Fine Arts (MFA). She shared with us that she wants to travel abroad to become a novelist and poet, particularly to France: “Paris, France actually is the place where a lot of contemporary, as well as previous, 19^th century writers, et cetera, 20^th century, 21^st century go to explore their work. Some writers like Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and artists Josephine Baker. A lot of Black thinkers went to France, and Paris was the place where people discovered their creative voice. It’s a hub for Black revolutionary thought.”

Denim understands the importance of education, and she has always known that her path was college. As a first-generation college student, she did everything she could to ensure that she could receive an education. The Carson Scholars Fund scholarship has helped Denim reach this goal, serving as a financial resource to help allow her to “unlock the infinite possibilities in my life and the world at large.” It was very significant for Denim to be named a Patterson HBCU Scholar because James Patterson is a writer, which is what she aspires to become.

At Spelman College she is a social justice fellow, a John Lewis scholar, and enjoys being in community with the Women’s Research and Resource Center. Within the social justice program, she is an archivist on The Blue Record. The collegiate podcast utilizes a feminist lens to analyze conflicts and problem solving throughout the world. As an archivist with The Blue Record, Denim does research in the archives, speaks on podcast episodes, and works with a larger team on these projects and episodes. In addition, she has also volunteered for an organization that empowers youth in crises by elevating academic, social and civic expectations to facilitate high school graduation. In the four months that Denim volunteered there, she prepped and assisted high school seniors with writing their college essays and applications. From January to October of 2025, Denim was a fellow for Word in Black where she reported on Black student experiences and community-based healing.

Denim’s advice to our current scholars is to pursue your dreams. She says, “No dream is too immense or too nonsensical. If you’ve dreamt it then it can be a reality.”