They are chasing their dreams, and breaking down barriers in the process.
This academic year, Brandeis International Business School launched the
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Scholarship (DEIS), a full-tuition graduate scholarship designed to recognize outstanding U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents from historically underrepresented backgrounds, including first-generation college students.
The inaugural class of DEIS scholars includes three students: Carmen Huang ’20, MA’21, Eden Merdasa, MSBA’22 and Andrea Murillo, MA’22.
All three are the first in their families to go to college.
“It all comes back to my family,” said Huang, who was raised in Quincy, Massachusetts. “Growing up in a low-income household, I witnessed what it was like for my parents to struggle through their life. I really wanted to pay it back and use my powers through education to improve not only my life, but my family’s life. I’m an only child, so that puts a lot more weight on myself. When this opportunity came, I couldn’t resist. A free education is not a privilege often granted so I didn’t want to let that go.”
Merdasa was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and moved to Boston when she was 15.
After graduation, she wants to launch a career in consulting and eventually found her own non-governmental organization to fight poverty in Ethiopia.
“It’s home and I want to do anything I can to help,” said Merdasa. “We moved to find opportunity and I had difficult experiences when I moved here. It’s great now, but it was hard at first to adapt to a whole new culture and language. I want to get Ethiopia to the point where people there move out of want and not out of need.”
The DEIS scholars said the opportunity to further their studies at the International Business School is life altering, and not just for them personally.
“It’s hard to put in words because a lot of emotions are involved,” said Huang. “This opportunity serves as a catalyst — it propels me forward. It really gives hope to low-income, first-generation students to pursue your dream and make it a reality.”
