The Southern Management Corporation Scholarship Fund

Aburough Abegesah

Aburough, the youngest of four children to immigrant parents from Cameroon, was born with a congenital heart condition known as transposition of the great vessels. He had surgery at birth to help fix his condition and has known ever since then that he wanted to be involved in health care. Aburough left Maryland to complete his bachelor's degree in biochemistry at Cornell College in Iowa before returning to receive his pharmacy degree. He hopes to make his mark in pharmaceuticals.

Charity Barr

Charity discovered her passion for helping the community through involvement with her church while growing up in Miami. She took on various roles throughout her undergraduate career at Howard University, gaining experience that included helping homeless and at-risk military veterans. She graduated with a degree in sociology and community development in 2015 before serving as an AmeriCorps member in Washington, D.C., with Public Allies. She engaged the community as the volunteer coordinator and clothing room coordinator at Bread for the City; recruited, managed, and trained over 400 volunteers and mentored interns in the Pre-Employment Program; and volunteered on weekends at the city orchard in Beltsville, Md. Charity is pursuing master’s degrees in social work and public health at the University of Maryland. She aspires to be a licensed mental health clinician and health care administrator. She also has an interest in researching environmental discrimination against minorities who are subject to pollutant exposure and have limited access to clean, natural resources.

Jasmine Noronha

Jasmine is a family nurse practitioner student. After graduating in 2012 with her BSN degree, she started working at the University of Maryland Medical Center on the Pediatric Progressive Care Unit. She decided to go back to school because she wanted to have more autonomy while using evidenced-based practice to guide her care. She enjoys family practice because it allows her to practice in a variety of settings and interact with individuals who are in different stages in life. Along with being a full-time student, Jasmine serves as a graduate teaching assistant in the nursing simulation lab. She enjoys teaching new nursing students the basics of the profession and watching their skills and knowledge build.

Myat Nyunt

Myat is originally from Yangon, Myanmar. In 2002, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Maryland area. He completed his BS degree at Virginia Tech, then worked for a couple of years as an addiction counselor before continuing his education. Myat is going into his advanced year as a master's student at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He aspires to become a licensed social worker in the behavioral health field specializing in Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). Myat hopes to make EAP more accessible to a diverse population. In his free time, Myat competes as a West Coast Swing dancer at the All-Star level.

Oluwatoyin Orunja

Oluwatoyin is a second-year Doctor of Nursing Practice student specializing in anesthesia. She grew up in Mitchellville, Md, in Prince George’s County. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in biological sciences from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2009. Her love for science and desire to work in a clinical setting led her to pursue the Clinical Nurse Leader Master's degree at the University of Maryland School of Nursing; she graduated in December 2011. Afterward, she worked at Holy Cross Hospital on the Medical-Surgical Unit for two years. Then, she transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, where she fell in love with critical care nursing. Oluwatoyin also worked as a clinical instructor for Chamberlain College of Nursing, where she discovered her passion for teaching. Her long-term goals are to practice clinically as a certified registered nurse anesthetist and teach at a collegiate academic institution. Outside of work and school, Toyin enjoys mentoring youths in her community, exercising, and cooking.

Damata Payida-Ansah

Born and raised in Ghana, Damata has experienced firsthand the detrimental effects that poor health care access and quality has on the lives of the most vulnerable members of society — children, women, and the elderly. Her dream is to help provide adequate preventive care and education to bridge the health care gap for the underserved in the D.C. metropolitan area and in Ghana. Damata has a passion for teaching and mentoring and would be honored to have a hand in shaping and honing the next generation of nurses and nurse practitioners by mentoring and serving as a professor of Advanced Practice Nursing. She is one year into her journey pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice with a Family Nurse Practitioner concentration and is excited for all the possibilities the future holds.

Jemima Pierre-Jacques

Jemima is a second-year Doctoral of Nursing Practice student pursuing a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner degree. Originally from Cavaillon, a small town in the south of Haiti, Jemima now lives in Maryland. Since completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Howard University, she has worked as a cardio-thoracic registered nurse in Washington D.C. However, Jemima was affected by the emotional trauma the Haitian community suffered from the 2010 earthquake, and her interest shifted to psychiatric nursing. Her goals are to be an agent of change by using her knowledge from her schooling to serve minorities and educate communities about mental illness and possibly diminish the stigma associated with people suffering from psychiatric illnesses, especially in immigrant communities.

Mariyam Popoola

Mariyam is a student enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesia program. Born in Providence, R.I., Mariyam spent her formative years in Lagos, Nigeria, before transitioning back to the United States. Growing up in Nigeria, she witnessed the devastating effect a lack of adequate health care options, policy, and quality health care professionals can have on a community. Because of this experience, Mariyam decided she wanted to make a change and provide health care to underserved patients. She has worked as a registered nurse at Medstar Washington Hospital Center and University of Maryland Medical Center for seven years. Mariyam enjoys spending time with family, dancing, and volunteering with nonprofits with a focus on caring for and feeding the homeless. Upon graduation, Mariyam desires to provide anesthesia care in a facility working with underserved patients where she can help improve patient outcomes and bring about health care improvements and contributions through practice and policy change.

Numoipre Roberts

Numoipre is a Nigerian-American who was born in Bladensburg, Md., and has lived in the DMV area for most of her life. In her undergraduate studies at Bowie State University, where she studied social work, Numoipre was an honor student who made the dean’s list on multiple occasions and was awarded numerous institutional and federal scholarships for her outstanding academic performance and community outreach initiatives. She hopes to find similar successes at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, where she will specialize in families and children with a particular interest in those who are displaced, living in poverty, or underserved. After graduation, she hopes to one day become a strong and vocal advocate for the empowerment and advancement of this and all marginalized and vulnerable groups, not only here in the U.S., but also eventually all over the globe.

Niya Ross

Niya is a second-year nursing student at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Born and raised in Prince George’s County, Md., she has received numerous awards, including honors from Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and the Maryland Association of Nursing Students. Passionate about nursing from a young age, Niya wants to bridge the language barrier gap between nurse and patient in the health care field. She wants to provide the best quality of care to those with English as their second language and minority populations by emphasizing the importance of global health and efficient patient education. Upon graduation, she would like to start her nursing career as a traveling nurse. She enjoys learning and traveling to immerse herself in different cultures. Traveling will allow her to develop and understand the different needs of a culture to effectively implement change for that specific patient population by providing care and health education. Ultimately, Niya intends to further her education toward a career as a nurse anesthetist.

University of Maryland, Baltimore

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