‘UNCF Changed My Life’
Brianna Lewis is a recent alumna from Philander Smith University, a UNCF-member institution. In May, she received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She is now pursuing a master of science in instructional science and technology at California State University.
“Because of UNCF and its amazing opportunities, I only ever took out one student loan during my time in undergrad,” Lewis shared. “UNCF is the reason I graduated almost debt-free. They changed my life, and I am forever grateful for UNCF.”
While at Philander Smith University, Lewis received the Rhythm Nation/Janet Jackson Scholarship and the Quilt Endowed Scholarship from UNCF, which helped her graduate with little debt. The Quilt Endowed Scholarship is a need-based scholarship for education majors. She also served as a UNCF Ambassador, spreading scholarship, internship and other UNCF opportunities with her fellow students. Even if she wasn’t applying for a particular scholarship, she told her peers about it.
“My experience as a UNCF Ambassador was nothing short of amazing,” she said. “It impacted my education by giving me an early look at some of the UNCF internships and scholarships, allowing me to start working on my application materials if I qualified and planned to apply for the opportunities.”
She shared informational flyers and posted UNCF scholarship details in the Philander Smith University group chat. “My scholarship dumps were sometimes a monthly or biweekly occurrence in the group chats,” she said.
Lewis also learned about the UNCF K-12 Fellowship through her time as a UNCF Ambassador. “I was an ambassador the year before I did the fellowship, so I knew about it from that experience and kept up with it when it opened again for me to apply,” she said.
Through the fellowship, she worked as an operations fellow at Becoming Collegiate Academy in Jacksonville, FL. “That actually helped me solidify my love for the behind-the-scenes work in education,” Lewis said. “It made me realize that I could still be in education without going the traditional route of teaching in a classroom setting. I loved my fellowship, my cohort members and especially my team members—shoutout to Retention Revolution! I still use some of the resources we learned in the senior year experience/K-12 Fellowship to this day. I can’t wait to see the future of the fellowship program.”
Lewis is not interested in-classroom teaching roles, but instead pursuing education technology (ed tech), with a focus on learning design. “This is something that combines my love for designing and my love for educating others,” she said.
“Education is in my blood,” she explained. “I come from a line of educators, and even though I tried to go [down] another path, it called out to me and I answered.”
Lewis’ family has an HBCU legacy. Her dad received his master’s and doctorate degrees in education from Howard University.
Lewis was drawn to Philander Smith University because it felt like a family. “It is a small school located in downtown Little Rock, AR,” she said. “Because of its size, the community often knows you by name and they want to see you succeed. From the CEO/president of the university to the resident assistants in your dorm, they care about you as a person and will do all that they can to see you win.”
Her most memorable experience at the university happened during her first semester of freshman year. “As an honors student, we were required to attend the scholarship gala that year,” she said. “So I was in attendance for that reason only and as I was sitting at the table during the program, the speaker was talking about how they wanted to award a scholarship to a student tonight. At the time, I didn’t think it could be me, so I started talking to a peer at the table. Then, boom, my name was announced as the scholarship recipient. I was shocked but also extremely grateful.”
The Generational Access and Affordability Program (G.A.A.P.) scholarship she received was applied to her account for the next semester, resulting in a zero balance for that year.
Now, Lewis works with high school seniors and encourages the next generation of college students to look for UNCF opportunities. “I preach to them everything UNCF and actively send them scholarships,” she said.
UNCF is proud of our students and alumni who have received scholarships that help them continue their education and graduate. These scholarships are invaluable to students, and UNCF is accepting donations to support students like Brianna Lewis in their academic endeavors.