Emily Hays Photo
Graduating Hillhouse senior Tiasia Jones.
Tiasia Jones is heading to Morgan State University with help from her Dwight, West River and Edgewood neighbors.
The Hillhouse senior won $500 from the Dwight Central Management Team’s DeBorah E. Davis Scholarship with her essay on bagging groceries for food insecure families on Thanksgiving.
“It was my first independent community service event. I could see that it was a weight lifted off their shoulders. While some might think it’s not such a big deal, I couldn’t stop talking about how good I felt,” Jones recalled.
She started mentoring preteens at Elm City Cheer. She found a similar satisfaction in being a confidante for students going through tough times.
These volunteering outlets vanished when the Covid-19 pandemic began. By June though, Jones found a safe way to give her time — educating peers about Black Lives Matter and police brutality through social media.
Dwight Central Management Team (DCMT) Chair Florita Gillespie announced Jones as the DeBorah Davis Scholarship winner at the management team’s most recent meeting, held online Tuesday evening. The annual scholarship comes entirely from donations from members of the management team.
Gillespie noted that the scholarship has always been about volunteerism. That requirement seemed potentially impossible for students this year.
“I said that we should put community service on [the application] anyway. We don’t know what they might be doing,” Gillespie said.
Jones showed that creativity with her online volunteering, Gillespie said.
Others at the management team lauded Jones for volunteering since she was a child and for choosing to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore. They told her that she will do well, because she has a strong mother to support her. (Jones is the daughter of Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers.)
“I’m a Baltimorean originally. Go get yourself some good hardshell crabs,” said Sheila Shanklin.
Jones has long wanted to attend Morgan State, based on stories she has heard from alumni and from Baltimore-based family.
She plans to study biology and become an obstetrician or gynaecologist. She changed her career plans from doula birth-coaching to OB/GYN doctor after realizing how few Black women work in the field.
“There is a lot of medical racism. Even my sister was in danger from things that doctors should have seen … And I love babies,” Jones said.
Jones is excited to study in-person and make new friends in Baltimore after a hard year of remote school. She knows her mother’s legacy is a lot to live up to, and she feels that she is ready to make her own legacy in her chosen field.
Another student was supposed to receive the DeBorah E. Davis Scholarship alongside Jones. However, personal problems in her family mean she will not be able to attend the college she chose next year.
