College Planning Support Program Student Selected as 2021 Rhodes Scholar

MARIETTA, Ga., Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Ensuring Access and Equity announced today that Samuel Patterson, III, has been selected as a 2021 Rhodes Scholar. Patterson, a graduate of Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia, participated in the foundation's nationally recognized College Planning Cohort Program.

In 2017, as a participant in the Turner Chapel AME Church Cohort, the program's founders and curriculum developers, Mychal and Nina Wynn, introduced Patterson to the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC).

Patterson recounts, "I did not have a single friend, counselor, or teacher who was familiar with 'UMBC,' let alone the Meyerhoff Scholars Program." The Wynns nominated Patterson to the program and introduced him to former Florence School District 3 (SC) Cohort student, Mikayla Hanna, an undergraduate at UMBC (Meyerhoff Scholar and 2015 Gates Millennium Scholar) with aspirations of pursuing a PhD in bioinformatics.

Wynn notes, "Our program focuses on assisting students in identifying the postsecondary pathways aligned with their 'body of work.' In this manner, we have students who begin college at technical or community college, in-state public universities, and at the country's most selective private colleges and universities. The body of work for some students has resulted in their selection as Gates Millennium Scholars, Posse Foundation Scholars, Northeastern University Torch Scholars, Elon University Odyssey Scholars, NC A&T Dowdy Scholars, North Carolina Central Cheatham-White Scholars, QuestBridge Scholars, University of Richmond - Richmond Scholars, and in the case of Sam, a Meyerhoff Scholar and Rhodes Scholar."

Patterson is one of only 32 American students to be selected each year as Rhodes Scholars, which awards a full scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England. Patterson is one of two students from Georgia, and only the second Rhodes Scholar in the history of UMBC. Patterson's father, Kirk, an educator and consultant, comments, "My wife, Angela, and I will be forever grateful that the College Planning Cohort Program guided our son into a school, program, and scholarship that was not on his radar and on a pathway toward becoming a Rhodes Scholar."

Website: https://www.accessandequity.org/

*PHOTO: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/20-1201s2p-Samuel-Patterson-III-300dpi.jpg  

*Caption: Samuel Patterson, III.

SOURCE Foundation for Ensuring Access and Equity