Many Others Still Need a Helping Hand
This February, two outstanding USG students shared their moving life stories before the Maryland House of Delegates Appropriations Committee and the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to illustrate the importance of their education at The Universities at Shady Grove and the critical need to fund public higher education.
Erwin Hesse, a senior in the UMCP Criminology and Criminal Justice program at USG, told delegates of his academic struggles in high school while hanging out with the “wrong”crowd. Though he barely graduated, as an only child he felt an obligation to his mother so while working full time during the day, he enrolled in the criminal justice program at Montgomery College. During his final semester at MC, he was required to visit inmates at the local jail, where he was shocked to encounter two former acquaintances from high school. “From that moment on, I realized how differently my life could have turned out,” Hesse told the committee.
Hesse needed an affordable pathway to earn his bachelors degree and achieve his dream of going to law school. USG provided the best combination of academics, student services and financial assistance to allow him to complete his undergraduate education while still living at home in Montgomery County. He is a recipient of a Camille and Clifford Kendall Scholarship.
Wanting to give back, Hesse decided this year to enlist in the U.S. Army. Immediately after his graduation this spring, he will serve his country as a paralegal specialist for three years before attending law school.
USG junior, Shahin Shahrivar, told senators a riveting story of his family’s fall into homelessness, on the very day he graduated high school. For two years, he worked double shifts to be able to support his mother and himself until they could get settled again. But through it all, Shahrivar never lost sight of his goal to attend college and make a better life. He enrolled in Montgomery College and received the Gordon Macklin transfer scholarship to complete his undergraduate degree at USG, allowing him to keep his job and stay with his mother in Montgomery County.
Today, Shahin is a high-achieving student in the Entrepreneurial Fellows Program in UMCP’s R.H. Smith School of Business at the USG campus. As a future business leader, he also looks forward to one day giving back to the community, in gratitude for the public education that has allowed him to seize opportunities and succeed.