MLK Scholarship Nominees Will be Honored at Youth Celebration

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Association of Asheville & Buncombe County will present its 2016 Achievement Awards and Scholarships at an event on Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at Ferguson Auditorium on the A-B Tech Campus.

Nine high school graduates nominated for the 2016 Youth Award include three from Asheville High School (AHS), two from Charles D. Owen High, and one each from The Asheville School, Enka High, A.C. Reynolds High, and the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences (SILSA) at AHS.

All three Asheville High nominees will travel far from home for the university studies. Saim Alam, son of Irrun and Imran Alam, will relocate to New York City to attend Fordham University at Lincoln Center; Raekwon Griffin, son of Vernette Griffin, will attend historic Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.; and Kai Lendzion, son of Kriya Lendzion, will head to Sarasota, FL to enroll at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL.

The nominees from Owen High—Lizzeth Flores-Gonzalez, daughter of Yolanda Gonzalez-Loza, and DeMarcus Harper, grandson of Mary Harper and nephew of Jamal Harper—will both stay closer to home in the fall: Ms. Flores-Gonzalez will enroll in classes at A-B Tech, and Mr. Harper will attend Appalachian State University in Boone.

Holt Mettee, daughter of Jeff and Anne Mettee, will travel farthest afield this fall, though she has committed to UNC Asheville in the fall of 2017. The graduate of The Asheville School will first spend a “gap year” with Global Citizen in India, working with Teach for India and living with a home-stay family for eight months.

Two of the MLK Youth Award nominees, from Enka High and SILSA, will be attending UNC Chapel Hill this fall: Enka graduate Brandon Dillingham, son of Chris and Damette Dillingham, and SILSA graduate Sebastian Elie-York, son of Caroline Elie.

Nallah Muhammad, an A. C. Reynolds graduate and the daughter of Jason and Tina Muhammad, will attend one of North Carolina’s most prestigious and renowned historically black colleges, NC A&T University in Greensboro.

At the awards ceremony, all nine outstanding graduates will be recognized for their high school accomplishments, community service, and personal character, and two will be named as recipients of scholarships from the MLK Association.

The event is free and open to the public; everyone is invited and encouraged to applaud and support these young men and women as they take the next step into the adult lives and careers.

For more information, contact Chairperson Oralene Graves Simmons at (828) 281-1624 or [email protected].