2023 Aicha Hermes

Aicha is the first female student with a headscarf in Albemarle’s Math, Engineering, and Science Academy and has been an inspiration to other young women who wear the headscarf and want to pursue STEM.  It was intimidating to feel judged for her cultural background and her headscarf, but Aicha has bounced back.  She is an audacious woman unafraid to challenge norms and break barriers. She plans to study medicine to help others in the way doctors have helped her and her family.

Aicha taught herself to sew and joined a sewing club, mentoring younger students as they sewed more than 200 bibs and blankets for needy women in a single day.  She wants to thread together compassionate sewers to create needed items for the underprivileged. Later, as a doctor, she knows her needle and thread will always be with her as she sews chemotherapy turbans for women and toys for her child patients. Aicha currently attends New York University.

2022 Kaymin Hester

Kaymin Hester of Charlottesville High School received the $50,000 Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship in 2022. Hester, who plans to become a neurosurgeon and author, is deciding between several top colleges. She hopes her prolific writing and passion for volunteerism will continue to inspire her community with a sense of curiosity and adventure about fields ranging from music to medical technology.

2021 Aditi Prakash

Aditi says her best attributes are grit, empathy and optimism! She started an anti-racist club at her high school and also a program for older students to mentor elementary school students during the pandemic summer. She herself mentored two Spanish speaking children. Aditi also created a program that distributed 200 free STEM kits to disadvantaged students with a goal of fostering love for and confidence in science. In the 9th grade she attended UVA’s Bio-Medical Camp for Girls and was so inspired she decided to pay it forward and agreed to intern there last summer. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease just last spring and invited her GI doctor to be a guest speaker at the camp. Aditi is attending Stanford and plans to become an educational policy maker.