Scholarships Fuel Homeowner Success

Visions. Goals. Action! (VGA) is one of Atlanta Habitat’s most impactful initiatives for homeowners. Developed to help our homeowners thrive beyond the build of their homes, VGA is a scholarship and grant awards program for those seeking higher education and professional opportunities. In January, three Atlanta Habitat homeowners, Lashunda M., Angelique H., and Kylie A., all earned scholarships to help catapult them to achieve other life goals.

Twice yearly, VGA awards $5,000 in scholarships to Atlanta Habitat homeowners or household members. In January 2019, three lucky homeowners were recognized as winners at a VGA scholarship ceremony.

Lashunda moved into her Atlanta Habitat home in 2017. She is a first-generation high school graduate in her family, and she graduated with honors. Lashunda’s first attempt at college was unsuccessful, and she dropped out at age 20. Years later, now with a young child and living below the poverty line, Lashunda decided she needed to do better for her family. She returned to college to complete her undergraduate degree and is now pursuing an MBA at Clayton State University. “This scholarship represents possibilities for me and people like me who would never know what all they could accomplish one day!” Lashunda received a $2,500 first place scholarship to help fuel her determination to become a director of a finance, credit or accounting department. She later hopes to become a director of human resource.

Angelique’s family has owned their Atlanta Habitat home since 1998. After receiving her undergraduate degree from John Hopkins University in Public Health, Angelique is currently earning a master’s degree in Public Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Angelique is passionate about reducing the sexually transmitted disease epidemic. “I want to make a real, measurable difference in mitigating the effects that HIV has on African Americans in Atlanta, and as an infectious diseases epidemiologist with a strong quantitative and qualitative education from Rollins, I will do so!” Angelique won $1,500 to further pursue her dreams and goals.

When their home was burglarized in 2012, a year after she and her mom moved into the Lakewood Community, third place winner Kylie began to take a special interest in criminology. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology and intends to use the scholarship to pursue a career in criminal justice. She wants to be a detective. “I hope to be someone that people can come to when they feel just as scared and vulnerable as I did in 2012,” Kylie said, as she accepted a $1,000 scholarship.