Scholarships for scholar

Most kids spend a lot of their time in high school doing things that they’re not supposed to be doing. If loitering at the mall were a class, high schoolers would have aces across the board – but of course, it’s not, so instead of accolades they get incompletes and not-so-glowing letters home to mom and dad.
But sometimes schools and parents get lucky and end up with a young lady like Kiera Harris. The 18-year-old from Far Rockaway recently received $7,000 in scholarships from the New York Urban League (NYUL) and the Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Scholarship.
“I was completely shocked,” said Harris, who submitted an essay to the NYUL, which eventually named her a Jordan Brand Scholar. “My mom wouldn’t have stopped me from going to the school I wanted, but it would have been a struggle for her to afford it without this scholarship.”
This honor isn’t just something that fell in her lap, a lucky break she didn’t have to work for – Harris put in the kind of work that is foreign even to most adults. She attended the Scholars Academy in Rockaway Park, an accelerated high school, and was a part of the first graduating class. Pulling all nighters studying, she finished with a 101 average.
“I’m not the kind of person to slack,” she said. “I just can’t get a bad grade. For me, anything below an 85 is a failing grade. My experience there [in high school] was good because it taught me a lot about work ethic. If I’m struggling, I just work my hardest to make sure I pass with a 95 or above.”
Harris is on the pre-med track now, and will attend SUNY Binghamton with a major in psychology and minor in linguistics. She’s not sure if she wants to be a doctor or a scientist, but she definitely wants to deal with speech pathology and study sign language.
Until then, Harris is spending the summer interning at a gastroenterologist’s office getting her feet wet and preparing herself for a life of work.
“It’s preparing me for life, period,” she said. “This place has helped improve my communication skills – that’s probably the most important skill I’ve taken from this job. It’s a great life skill to have.”
And more life skills are sure to follow. SUNY Binghamton isn’t exactly around the corner from Queens, but Harris believes that getting out of one’s comfort zone is the only way to truly grow.
“I’m a little intimidated, but I’m going to just do what I have to do, bite the bullet and deal with it,” said Harris, who is an only child and used to making new friends. “As shy and as nervous as I might be, I have to grow up.”
Harris’ mom gets teary eyed when they talk about the big move upstate, but they both know that she has to be independent at some point in her life. She said she can’t wait to experience the new surroundings, the mountains and the snow of her new environment.
“I’ve never lived next to a mountain,” she said.
But even with mountains, Harris still counts her mother, Wallis, as her chief inspiration.
“She works so hard for me and sacrificed so much for me. The least I can do is go to school and pass. It’s not hard, you just have to listen and take notes,” she said. “You just have to work hard at what you want. If that’s what it takes, then that’s what I’ll do.”
For the kids that waste away their time doing nothing in particular, Harris has a message.
“Wake up and stop being lazy. They [kids her age] don’t understand that this is the beginning of the end of your life. If you’re not doing good work now, you’re not going to do good work in the future,” she said. “Just never give up.”