GRASP News
July 2018
GRASP Alumna, Fatima Bangura - Richmond Community High School, 2013 - Syracuse University, 2017
What is the best thing GRASP has done for you? The best thing GRASP has done for me is help my family and me understand and successfully submit the FAFSA and CSS Profile. This is such an important step in the college application process -- securing financial aid, campus housing, a meal plan -- thanks to GRASP, this process was made easy.
What are you doing now? I'm currently a digital content producer at WKBW-TV in Buffalo. I post stories and breaking news to the station's website and branded social media. I also enterprise food and lifestyle content for the company's "Taste & See" social video series.
Note: Fatima has since transferred to WXYZ-TV in Southfield, Michigan, where she continues to work as a digital producer.
What one piece of "educational advice" would you give to high school students? Be proactive. If you know what you want to do and where you want to be, reach out to people who are there. Connect with them. Ask them how they got that job, that position and emulate them.
What is the biggest life challenge you faced relative to your educational path? My biggest challenge was overcoming the metric system educational systems use to rate/rank students. I personally felt I did not need to be defined by these ranks. That realization made it difficult for me to focus on things that did not directly relate to or help me become the person I desired to be such as writing 16-page papers and doing busy work projects. Create your own path, and do it with passion and commitment, so you do not have to settle for someone else's standards.
Expanding students' opportunities to learn
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