Gates scholarship helps UW senior

UW–Madison senior Jamie Stevenson recently received a new scholarship that is part of $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Called the Gates Millennium Scholars, the scholarship program is designed to fund the college education of 20,000 high achieving, low-income minority students over a period of 20 years. The program hopes to increase minority numbers in academic disciplines in which they are typically underrepresented, including mathematics, science, engineering, education and library sciences, and to develop the leadership skills of these particular students for the future.

Stevenson was selected last May from more than 62,000 applicants to be a member of the program’s inaugural class of 4,000 students. As part of their inauguration, students were asked to present to and meet with their fellow scholars in leadership workshops at a conference in Dallas this May.

Stevenson says the event was a valuable experience because she learned from others who have faced the same challenges in their education.

“The undergraduate experience can be isolating,” Stevenson says. “Students have the responsibilities of only taking care of themselves, so it’s very self-absorbing. But many students at this conference had additional challenges.”

Many scholars lack family assistance for their education — and may support families themselves while attending school. “They have all these concerns and pressures but they are still focused on getting a college degree,” Stevenson says.

Stevenson also has an additional challenge.

“I have an interesting experience because I can ‘check all the boxes’, so to speak,” says Stevenson, who is not only a female minority, but also has a rare nerve disorder known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, which has caused her lower right leg to swell and become extremely sensitive to touch. A mere bump to Stevenson’s leg could lead to infection or amputation, which has severely limited her access to many areas of campus.

“While I’m interested in going into medicine, I haven’t been able to take many of the [appropriate] classes due to accessibility issues,” she says. For example, Stevenson’s disorder prevents her from wearing pants, which is required in the university’s medical laboratories. She also frequently finds cars illegally parked in spaces reserved for the disabled, which has caused her to miss about a third of her classes.

But the Gates Millennium Scholars program provides Stevenson with an alternative. It will fund a master’s degree and doctoral degree for each scholar in any of the five target areas.

“It’s a dilemma,” says Stevenson. “Do you want to be doing something you’re not passionate about because it’s free?”

Still, Stevenson says she regards the Gates Millennium Scholars program as an invaluable opportunity for leadership development and for making connections with other students, thus expanding her “network of support.”

“This university has been very gracious in listening to my story, in getting me here and keeping me here,” she says. “But it’s been a lot of work to get my network of people in place that are supportive of my dreams and goals.”

Stevenson also says the scholarship program provides the additional help she requires in establishing these connections. In addition to financial assistance, the program provides each student with a mentor to counsel and aid the scholars in decision-making.

“If you provide money without a relationship, things just don’t work,” says Stevenson. “I think Gates has thought this through.”

Stevenson says she is impressed with the commitment that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made to her and the other scholars and she has high hopes for the future of the program.

“It dawned on me that Bill Gates has basically adopted every one of these students,” she says. “These students feel an investment has been made in them. I think it is going to be a great program.”