About Us
The Class of 2025 Greenhouse Scholars
As part of their community impact initiative, the Greenhouse Scholars Class of 2025 created this site as a guide for students navigating college admissions and college itself! Each of our scholars are highly accomplished and exceptional leaders and students!
Vicky Tong - UCLA
Some of my greatest joys in life come from spending time with the people I love and experiencing new places, foods, and the beauty of every location I visit. I am passionate about appreciation—taking in the world for all it’s worth and understanding that there is so much more out there for me to see. Hence, my love for the environment, my drive to promote better sustainable practices, and my need to make a positive impact on the world. This has been my path for most of my life, and it’s something I hold very dear to my heart. To protect my family and friends is to protect the Earth.
Vanessa Leon-Gamez - University of Denver
I am a self-starter and advocate for my passions and community. I aim to improve our public health systems, specifically within reproductive rights and creating equitable access to sex education and contraception. Because of my Mexican-American background, I always try to find ways to connect to my culture and stay close to my roots. I enjoy spending meaningful time outside and with my family and friends. In college, I am often missing my mom’s cooking and cultural foods such as pan dulce, tamales, and pozole.
Thong Vu - Lehigh University
Hey everyone! I’m Thong Vu, and I love listening to music, going on outdoor walks in the summer, and having a good time with anyone. As for my background, I was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. when I was three. My experience as an immigrant wasn’t much different from others. Like many immigrant children, I struggled with my identity as I maneuvered through life as a “first-generation American.” Fortunately, these struggles helped me come to college with enough resilience to make it through Physics 2. There have been many ups and downs in my college career but I’ve learned that it’s easier to get through these things with a strong community. I’ve always enjoyed helping others and sharing my experiences with people of different backgrounds. I had a hard time finding my identity throughout college, and to be honest, it’s become difficult to envision myself after I graduate. Nevertheless, I enjoy sharing stories about college, good or bad, so feel free to reach out.
Syna Sharma - North Carolina State University
nnovating and transforming the education system is one of my life goals. I grew up attending a Montessori school in the US Virgin Islands. This method of schooling allowed me to learn at my own pace, gave me the freedom to explore my passions and interests rather than following a canned, one-size-fits-all curriculum, and allowed me to learn in a hands-on manner. When I moved to North Carolina in 2018 and attended a traditional public school, I finally realized the value of such a student-centered model of education. Because of my schooling experience, I have now committed myself to pursuing a career which allows me to work towards transforming the US educational system into a learner-centered environment that honors each child’s lived experiences, interests and allows them to unleash their potential
Selihom Yosief - Yale University
Hi everyone! My name is Selihom (seh-lee-home), and I am extremely passionate about global and mental health, as well as access to healthcare, namely in my family’s home country of Eritrea. I also love dancing, and I’m on two African dance teams here on campus! Community is something that is extremely important to me, and for this reason it is something I seek to create in all spaces I occupy by getting involved in initiatives such as dance, Black and East African affinity spaces, and clinical volunteering.
PlawKawHteeMoo “Plaw” Lay - Colorado School of Mines
Hi everyone. This is Plaw Lay. Some of my interests and hobbies include; hiking, mountain biking, and volunteering. Being outdoors is an aspect of life that I believe is essential to not only stay active but also appreciate the planet we are living on. Giving back to the community is also another interest of mine as I believe giving back through volunteering can help your community become better. I have been supported by many different organizations in my community to get me to who I am today and my biggest advice is to rely on the support of others around you and that it is ok to ask for help.
Myla Williams - Georgia State University
My name is Myla Williams and I am a current college student. Attending college put my educational experience into perspective by highlighting how education impacts the trajectory of people’s lives. Throughout my life, I attended private, charter, and public schools. Each schooling type coupled with my personal experiences has made me who I am today. When I transitioned out of Private and Charter schools, I noticed the advantage I had over students who attended public schools in lower-income communities. This advantage extended far beyond academic advancement; I had experiences in a variety of environments, equipping me with the tools to successfully navigate situations. My exposure was advantageous. I did not acknowledge the value of my personal experiences until my first year of college. College is a vast place where you meet different people with different backgrounds. As I met people of different backgrounds, I realized how primary school impacted their ability to transition into higher education and succeed. I noticed how many students were in advantageous positions because of the schools they went to. This realization sparked my passion for the pursuit of educational equity.
Maimouna Dia - Colorado State University
I am passionate about healthcare equitability and education. I want to use my education to help combat the inequalities within the healthcare system and make it more accessible for minority communities. For my personal impact plan, I hope to use the knowledge and experience I gain from my undergrad to lead programming that educates minority communities on public health practices, disease prevention, and self-advocacy. I also enjoy spending time with family, and friends, reading, and cooking. I developed a passion for cooking at a young age, and use it to immerse myself in the intricacies of different culinary foods. I also enjoy reading, with my current read being Brene Brown’s Into the Wilderness (highly recommend).
Lisa Kwan - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
One of my passions is to address the inequitable distribution of resources critical to health and well-being. In my hometown, I volunteer at the Greater Chicago Food Depository to repackage produce into family-friendly portions that will later get distributed at food pantries and food drives. Since moving to college, I now volunteer at the Food Assistance and Wellness Program at my school. The program serves as a supplemental food resource to the campus community.
Khanh Le - Harvard University
Born and raised in Vietnam to then living around a few places in North Carolina, I have always focused on making the most that is available to me. To that end, I understand that having access to such opportunities has been of immense privilege. Thus, I make it my goal to create similar opportunities for others and especially those around me, from teaching a dense topic to connecting two cool people with cool values together. To avoid sounding like a TikTok sigma grind bro, at the end of the day I just want to make myself available in whatever capacity I can!
Nyankat Doldol - Howard University
I have always been very expressive and internal about all the things and people I find important in my life. I enjoy showcasing my love and care by performing acts of service. Being able to put a smile on people’s faces and bellies is my passion. I have actually been cooking for people for so many years, but now I like recording cooking and teaching my friends and family meals to cook from my home country (South Sudan). Being a part of my school’s African Student Association has allowed me a chance to teach my peers about my country and also make meals and spend quality time together.
Kalea Ponce - Cornell University
Kalea is a Junior at Cornell University studying Hotel Administration with a concentration in finance and real estate. She stays involved on campus as President of the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality where she plans conferences for young professionals in hospitality. She also is the VP of Diversity for the Cornell Finance Club and recently won a stock pitch judged by Citi Bank. This summer she is interning for Mercer in Human Resource Consulting.
Joselyne Cimpaye - Berea College
I truly believe that every day is going to be an amazing day if you allow yourself to believe it! Personally, I was not born in the United States and because of this, I have found that one of my hobbies is getting the chance to interact with new people and just getting the opportunity to hear about each individual’s life story. Warm-hearted, welcoming, and passionate people make the world a more vibrant, compassionate, and inspiring place to live. Therefore, I strive to be such an individual.
One thing that I look forward to each day is putting a smile on the faces of people I interact with each day whether I know them or not!
For mental clarity and self-care, I enjoy being outdoors. Some of my favorite activities include trail running, evening walks, and hiking. I also enjoy spending lots of my time with my family.
Jaytrice Mackey - Emory University
One of my greatest passions is criminal justice. Growing up, the injustices of the carceral system were ever present in the world around me, never was there an option to ignore the target that encompassed my back being a Black person in America. My mother drilled into our heads, “yes, sir,” and “no, sir,” and “nothing, sir,” until she was sure our mouths wouldn’t get us into trouble. It wasn’t until I started debate in HS did my understanding of the unjust and inequitable treatment Black folk were subjected to were put into conceptual terminology that I understood the wrong embedded within a system supposedly dedicated to protecting its people. From there it was a battle. In every space I entered I made my Blackness – which proceeded my speaking – the necessary character to which any ignorance would be unable to ignore the intelligence of. I made the common discourse, euphemisms, parentheticals, syntaxical warfare, and all (meta)physical spaces encompass my Blackness and the world around us. Since entering college, I have begun the begrudgingly long journey of educating myself on the philosophical, political, and legal histories of injustice, unrest, change agency and rooting out the racism encrypted in the political doctrine founding this nation. I have challenged supposed presumptions, brought black literature and thought into predominantly white spaces, and forced the uncomfortable conversations to be had and continued in a respectable manner. I have protected my peace, and I have sieged comfortability at times for radical action. Now I am on the pre-law track to pursue a career in either criminal defense as a CD Attorney or a Litigation Attorney (wherever the heart sees fit).
Jasmin Storer - University of Denver
I love engaging with music, playing sports, hiking, and spending time with my family and friends (including the beautiful community at Greenhouse Scholars). I am very much an extrovert and love to learn from others. Not only does interacting with diverse individuals bring me great joy, but I also get to develop a deeper cultural understanding of the world around me which I think is beautiful! Also, when I say music, I mean singing (unfortunately, I am not the most gifted with other instruments) and dancing. I love to write songs that express myself and my experiences, but I also find it satisfying to collaborate with others or remix other songs and put my own spin on that. My headshot is actually me singing Halo (by Beyoncé) for a talent show held by the Asian Student Alliance on campus! I am a first-generation (on my mom’s side) and second generation (on my dad’s side) Asian-American. I am also a first-generation college student with a passion for using my business skills to provide myself, my family, and my community financial stability and educational/professional opportunities. Coming from a low-income, Asian family, I have had to fight for resources all my life and even now I continue to take it upon myself to take on all the burden of scrambling to know how to succeed. But the reality is that we can rely on others, and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time we go through something new. So, I am so excited to work with Greenhouse on this project which aims to support YOU. I am ready to assist you in any way possible— don’t hesitate to reach out! 🙂
Gisselle Zamora Ruelas - Northeastern University
From making schedules to organizing space layouts, I enjoy working on creating different systems. It is all about finding new ways to do things. Because of this, my hobbies consist of finding new ways to cook, learning about new cultures, and expanding my reading genres!
Ginelle Bamfo - New York University
I am very passionate about art creating points of access and connection across communities. Storytelling has given me a tool to help communicate with others when I don’t know how else to. As I progress in my career, I hope to create stories that empower people through visibility and accurate representation. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my friends and reading!
Fernando Rufino - Connecticut College
Upon arriving to college, I had no idea how closely I would connect to the arts and performing. Coming from a low income community, the transition to a predominantly white college was daunting. In my own community I was closely connected to dancing traditional Latine dances and performing Mexican music. I had no clue how I would accomplish this in a new environment for the next four years. As I arrived on campus, I realized that if change was going to happen, it would need to include me. This year as a junior I am a part of the executive board for Las Voces Unidas (LVU), an affinity club for all Latine students. Additionally, I have actively participated in the dance department and have performed in three senior capstone dances that encompassed Latine dances. This year, I took it a step further and created my school’s first ever Spanish band, performing throughout the New England area. What can I say, I needed to bring my cultura onto campus.
Faith Baca - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hello! My name is Faith, and I’m from Denver, Colorado. I love art, reading, cooking, and (pretending to be good at) dancing. I’m really passionate about language, technology, and using both to uplift the voices of individuals from underserved communities. Currently, I’m working on a project to help develop automatic speech recognition technologies for Indigenous languages. In the future, I hope to travel to as many places around the world as possible to learn from other communities about their culture and how we can celebrate their history and voices!
Daniela Chavez - University of Denver
Hi! I am a Denver native coming from a family of four girls and a single mother household. I grew to be resilient because of the challenges we faced as a family. As a child, I witnessed many people give my mother what little they could in order for us to survive. They were the helping hands and open hearts that made me who I am today. As an adult, I have now become part of the community that has little to give except a helping hand and open heart. I grew up saying I would always try to break generational cycles, but this is one I think I’ll keep around for my children to see.
Ceyda Alabacak - Duke University
My academic journey has been characterized by a deep fascination with technology, entrepreneurship, and the transformative potential of these in all areas of life. I spent the majority of my childhood in Turkey, aka where my family is from, accompanied by a few years in Italy, and moved to Chapel Hill, NC as a sophomore in high school.
Since then, I’ve really come to see the beauty in our differences and how they let us shine as individuals. Moving to a new country was a whirlwind, but finding myself wrapped in the warmth of different communities made it feel like home. Greenhouse, especially, was like a sanctuary during my college years, smoothing out the bumps in the road. From picking my major to exploring my passions, and even taking on the adventure of studying abroad (during which I had the opportunity to travel to 15+ countries), Greenhouse has been my rock. Their support has been the backbone of my journey, allowing me to dive into all sorts of interests over the years. Whether it’s immersing myself in new languages and cultures, gaining more exposure to entrepreneurship, or delving into the complexities of global politics — which has always fascinated me — Greenhouse has been there, cheering me on.
Aside from all of this, in my free time, I love traveling, learning about different cultures, and lifting 🙂 Now, as I approach my final year, I find joy in paying it forward, lending a hand to others who might be navigating similar paths. Having felt the power of community and knowing firsthand the difference it can make, I’m determined to ensure others feel just as supported and valued.
Bryce Mackson - University of Miami
I really enjoy spending my time with family, friends, and community. I am very keen on curating relationships, as from an early age I learned that relationships are what help propel you forward in life and what keep you grounded through chaos and adversity. I gained this imprint at my middle school I attended that was founded by a Taiwanese refugee, Suttiwan Cox. She instilled the importance of community within all of her students with daily chants and affirmations as to why it is important to gain an education to serve our community. On my free time, I really enjoy playing sports and being active; Growing up in a household of four brothers, things were always competitive and sports were a non-negotiable factor of living in our house.
Brooke Cliatt - Belmont University
Hey, y’all! I’m a proud first-generation college student hailing from East Georgia and living out my music industry dreams in Nashville, Tennessee. Having grown up listening to classic country music and being influenced by the phenomenal work of female artists in the 90s, I developed a passion for championing artists, specifically women, early in life. In middle school, I started to notice how little credit or few opportunities women received in the music industry, and I began to really dig into gender inequalities in entertainment. Ultimately, this led me on a path of discovering my ever-growing desire to elevate and champion artists who represent a minority, which has informed my studies, professional experience, extracurriculars, and even the media I consume in my leisure time. From joining organizations like Women in Entertainment, to volunteering for events that showcase women’s hard work in my industry, to reading books based around this issue, my understanding of this complex issue continues to evolve, as does my own role in combating disparities against different marginalized communities. Ultimately, I am constantly driven by a desire to uplift those who have exceptional gifts to share with the world by contributing to more equitable spaces and conversations within creative industries and our world as a whole.
Arez Khidr - Colorado College
Hey! I am Arez Khidr, a student from Colorado Springs, CO who loves history, books, and sports, especially kickboxing! My family is from Iraqi-Kurdistan and came to the United States in the 90s. I absolutely adore investigating diplomacy in history, as well as the intersection of culture and broader social/political movements (think of the Vietnam War Protests). My love for History certainly stems from my love of books, but I was not always a good reader. My mom would sit me down and we would slowly go through books from the library while she patiently handled my frustration. Books are lovely! Sometimes I feel we should all try to pick them up a bit more and remember that childhood joy of a book you couldn’t put down. I work at my college’s archives, and sometimes I just grab a book and comb through it, give it a shot next time you are at a library or bookstore!
Adaija Sheppard - Pitzer College
I was born and raised in Chicago! I’m the youngest of three children. I’m the first in my family to attend college so being first-gen is one of the greatest badges I will wear in my lifetime! My favorite musical is Hamilton. My favorite quote from the show is “if you stand for nothing what will you fall for”? Being first-Gen to me means standing up and creating a better future for me and my family .
In my free time, I like doing improv, playing nintendo switch, reading, and dancing! On my campus I’m actively involved in the first gen club, the Black student union (BSU), The admissions office, and Residential life as a Resident Assistant. I enjoy all my on campus activities because collectively In the 14 hours I spend doing them all I’m able to be in community with others, which is essential if your moving out of state for college!