Samuel Ready Scholarships- Spring 2022 Newsletter
A Note From The President
Greetings from the Board of Samuel Ready Scholarships, Inc.
In this, the organization’s 45th year, I am enjoying an exciting first year as President of the Board. We were delighted to start the 2021-2022 year by welcoming four new Samuel Ready Scholars. All 27 Scholars began the academic year in person at one of our Supported Schools in the Baltimore area and continue to succeed in their academic endeavors.
At the annual Fall Picnic, hosted by The Bryn Mawr School, we welcomed our Scholars, their families, our Donors, Supported School administrators and Board members. Our guests enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch, followed by remarks from the featured speaker, Monica Brunson, an accomplished and successful business owner and Samuel Ready Scholar graduate of The Bryn Mawr School. Ms. Brunson shared a message of inspiration and affirmation about the importance of being a Samuel Ready Scholar and the impact it has made throughout her life.
This year, we are developing plans to launch a Scholar Alumnae Network and we will share more about this exciting initiative later this spring. In addition, we plan to enhance the marketing and communications from and about Samuel Ready Scholarships and the difference we make in order to grow our community of stakeholders.
Our Scholars are members of our next generation of leaders. Thank you for all that you do to support our work and their success.
Teresa “Tea” Burt Carnell
PRESIDENT
Former Samuel Ready Scholars: Where are they now?
Monica Brunson
The Bryn Mawr School ’81
Monica is a dedicated professional with 25 years of experience in the senior care industry. She served as Admissions Director at Genesis Healthcare for 14 years and today, as founder and CEO at Brunson Healthcare Consultants, she specializes in locating assisted living housing throughout Maryland. Monica also offers coaching to persons who are interested in starting assisted living facilities of their own. Her entrepreneurial skill extends beyond the healthcare field. She helps with a family business, Berries by Quicha in Federal Hill. Monica is a leader in her community and works tirelessly to give back to others. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.
At the 2021 Samuel Ready Scholarships Fall Picnic, hosted by The Bryn Mawr School, Monica shared an inspiring keynote address with the Scholars and their families about what it means to be a Samuel Ready Scholar. Her message resonated with all the guests in attendance and was a wonderful kickoff to the academic year.
Cinneah El-Amin
The Friends School of Baltimore ’12
Currently based in New York, Cinneah is a graduate of Barnard College and Wake Forest University School of Business. She recently joined PayPal as a technical product manager. Outside of work, Cinneah chairs the Young Alumnae Committee for Barnard’s Alumnae As-sociation Board. Cinneah is the Founder of Flynanced, an online personal finance platform created to help millennial women make travel a financial priority. She is proud of her work in the social media space and wants to inspire other women to empower themselves with personal financial tools to earn, save and explore.
“Financial freedom is a game-changer for women, especially women of color and Black women, because we come from legacies of women being financially disempowered,” she said in her recent Good Morn-ing America interview. Cinneah has spoken at several Samuel Ready Scholarships events in recent years, and she credits Samuel Scholarships with making her time at Friends School possible.
Nancy Freeman Thrush
Garrison Forest School ’86
After her graduation from Garrison Forest School, Nancy went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Towson University and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. Nancy has worked as a marketing executive in the health care industry for more than 20 years.
In her current role as the Director of Marketing for AIS Healthcare, Nancy is responsible for planning, developing and executing marketing strategies that support AIS Health-care’s Ophthalmics strategic business and revenue objectives. Nancy also finds time to volunteer in her community, having served as a clinical advisory board member at the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland and currently serving as a member of the Alumnae Board at Garrison Forest School.
Cynthia Sarafidis Pierce
Roland Park Country School ’84
Cynthia credits Samuel Ready Scholarships and Roland Park Country School for providing her with many opportunities that were significant to her education. She has always been interested in politics and noted the positive impact of the Model UN and Model Congress experiences in high school. Cynthia earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. She worked as a Computer Scientist for the federal government before retiring after 25 years of service. The development and use of email and robotics were new as she started her career. Cynthia noted that being close to the D.C. area and having good access to technology were important throughout her profession. After her retirement, Cynthia and her family moved to North Carolina, where she currently lives.
Ebony Harley
St. Paul’s School for Girls ’05
Ebony describes her experience at St. Paul’s School for Girls (SPSG) as a Samuel Ready Scholar in a positive way, crediting SPSG in allowing her to be her truest self. Ebony went on to earn a bach-elor of arts in Economics from Davidson College. After spending four years pursuing her interests in corporate project management, Ebony switched gears and spent one year as a grassroots organizer advocating for better education practices across the state. These experiences led her to pursue a dual-masters at the University of Maryland, and, in 2017, she graduated with both an MBA and an MSW (Master of Social Work). Ebony currently works as the Specialty and Commercial Markets Chief of Staff at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. She also serves as the President of the SPSG Alumnae Association, and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Are you a former Samuel Ready Scholar?
We want to hear from all Samuel Ready Scholar graduates who attended one of our Supported Schools from 1978 – 2021. Join us as we create an exciting and empowering network of the more than 300 Samuel Ready Scholar Alumnae. Want to learn more about how you can become connected? Contact us at [email protected].
Samuel Ready Scholarships Annual Picnic
Sunday, September 12, 2021
On a beautiful September afternoon, more than 100 members of the Samuel Ready community gathered to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year. Scholars and their family members joined school administrators, members of the Samuel Ready Scholarships Board and generous donors for an afternoon of fellowship and inspiration. The picnic, hosted by The Bryn Mawr School, provided the Scholars with an opportunity to meet and reconnect with one another. The Scholars and their guests also enjoyed an exciting game of community bingo, led by Samuel Ready Scholar alumnae Mercedez Evans and Deana Frank.
The highlight of the event was the presentation made by Monica Brunson, a Samuel Ready Scholar graduate of The Bryn Mawr School. Her remarks about the impact and importance of the Samuel Ready Scholarship on her life captivated the audience. She encouraged the girls to look at themselves and recognize how special they are. She also encouraged the girls to get to know one another and tap into their resource of more than 300 Samuel Ready Scholars and Scholar Alumnae strong. It was a memorable day for all.
Gratitude
Samuel Ready Scholarships, Inc. remains extraordinarily grateful to all donors who provide financial resources that support our mission. In this issue, we share the story of one of our leadership donors, the Jane Egenton Foundation (soon to be the Egenton-Roberts Foundation). The story begins in 1836 when William and Margaret Egenton, members of the First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore City, created a Memorial to honor their daughter, Jane Nimmo Egenton, who died on her third birthday in 1834. The purpose of the Memorial was to establish a home for orphaned girls under the direction of the First Presbyterian Church. The first Jane Egenton Home for orphaned girls opened in 1880 at the corner of Madison Avenue and Preston Street. The Egenton Home moved several times, experiencing growing and then declining resident populations. The final Egenton Home, located on Park Avenue, sold in 2012, with the proceeds of the sale placed into the existing Egenton Endowment.
Interestingly enough, other members of the First Presbyterian Church, Howland and Annie Roberts, also left a Memorial upon their deaths to establish a home for girls, similar to the Egenton Home. Established in 1946, the Annie and Howland Roberts Home for Girls was never able to open, after the Board determined in 1999 that the funds available were insufficient to fund a home’s operation.
The Roberts Home funds were then merged with the Egenton Endowment funds, creating what is now the Egenton-Roberts Foundation, an organization that, in 2021, awarded more than $350,000 to nine deserving organizations benefiting almost 900 young women.
