White Plains High School Student Receives Manhattanville Scholarship
 Manhattanville College recently awarded a full four-year scholarship to Amanda Minck, a graduating senior at White Plains High School, at a daylong program, “Invest in Success: A Partnership for Access to Higher Education.” A scholarship essay contest was open to all high school students of African descent in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester and Rockland counties, who had a GPA of 3.0 or better. Runners up were Portia Lee Rose, who attends New Rochelle High School and Laudine Kuhl, who attends Ossining High School.
 Congressman Charles B. Rangel, of New York’s 15th district, stressed the importance of higher education in his keynote address. After quitting high school, Rangel joined the army and was wounded in the line of duty in 1950. After surviving this horrible ordeal, Rangel decided that the only way to better his life was to go back to school. “I needed an education,” he said. “The whole world was against me until I got that degree.”
Rangel urged students to make their dreams a reality by opening up the doors to their own success. “This decision is your own,” he said. “You have been exposed to a great opportunity. Someone inspired you to take this first step, the other steps will follow.”
Richard A. Berman, president of Manhattanville College, explained how education is a ladder to success: “Students that come to Manhattanville and leave here are leaders in their communities and are committed to making the world a better place. You can be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want, but education will get you where you are going.”
 The Manhattanville College Invest in Success scholarship program was established in 2000 to promote higher education among students of Hispanic and African descent through educational outreach and financial assistance. The scholarship covers full tuition, room and board and is renewable for four years, provided that the student maintains a 3.0 GPA and remains in good social standing. Invest in Success awards two full four-year scholarships a year once in October in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and once in February in honor of Black History Month.
Inger Stapleton, a past Invest in Success recipient, was in attendance at this year’s event. Stapleton received her Invest in Success scholarship in 2001 and graduated from Manhattanville College in 2005 with a degree in Asian Studies. After interning this past summer for Essence Magazine, she was hired full time by the magazine in November and works as a beauty assistant. She said that her scholarship alleviated her financial worries. “So many of my friends have loans to pay back,” she said. “I am fortunate in that I don’t have to worry about loans.”
 This year’s scholarship applicants submitted an essay that responded to the following: You have been granted a once in a lifetime opportunity to impact people’s lives. You have the power to alter one thing in your community, one thing in the United States and one thing in the world. What would you do? Contestants were asked to be specific about how being of African descent (African/African-American/African-Caribbean, etc.) influenced their choices.
About 150 high school students attended the Black History Month event, which also featured a workshop entitled “Knowing Yourself, Finding Your Fit: Choosing the Right College” and a college fair.
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