Lois Young-Thomas Memorial Scholarship and Leadership Guild Endowment

Endowed scholarship winner

Shanae Jones

Shanae T. Jones is a Baltimore City native in the advanced year of her studies at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, she returned to Baltimore with a desire to help. That desire led her to the Maryland Department of Human Resources, where she is employed as a family investment specialist for the Department of Social Services.  Shanae enjoys assisting clients in the acquisition of benefits to help improve their quality of life. As a wife and mother of four children, she is particularly interested in evoking positive change in the lives of children and families. Upon completion of her master's program, she will work in the children’s services sector of the Department of Social Services. In addition to children and families, Shanae is passionate about advocating on behalf of underrepresented and underserved populations.

Endowed scholarship winner

Sherika Brooks

Born and raised in Seattle, Sherika graduated with honors in sociology from George Washington University in 2012. In her most recent role as sustained impact manager at KaBOOM!, Sherika played a key role in the creation of the Play More B’More initiative, a program focused on engaging “opportunity youth” interns in Baltimore after the unrest following Freddie Gray’s death. Watching the interns realize the capacity they had to create change in their own communities was a driving force in Sherika selecting the Carey School of Law as the next steppingstone for her career in public service. Thanks to the love she has developed for Baltimore, the people she has collaborated with, and the communities she has worked in, she cannot imagine advocating for underserved groups anywhere else. By pursuing public interest law after graduation, she hopes to continue to give back to the communities she cares about in the state she now calls home.