The Ridley Scholarship Fund Board of Directors created a new award to honor the top academic performers among first-year and fourth-year African-American students at the University of Virginia. The Ridley-OAAA Academic Achievement Awards were developed in partnership with the Office of African-American Affairs, and funded by the New York City and Washington, D.C. Ridley chapters. The goal of the awards is to expand Ridley’s support to current African-American students.
In January, six first-year students with grade point averages exceeding 3.9 were given the Ridley-OAAA Academic Achievement Award by Ridley Chair Doug Smith. The presentations were made at Harambe II, OAAA’s annual event that celebrates first year students’ accomplishments. In addition, Smith presented two graduating fourth-year students with the award at the OAAA Donning of the Kente event the day before graduation in May.
The first-year recipients were Deborah Ayres-Brown, Alexah Eure, Jessica Harris, Priscilla Opoku-Yeboah, Noah Rushin, and Alaijah Cheeseman; and the fourth-year recipients were Alexander Adames and Aubree Surrency.
