2021 South Portland High School
$2500 Scholarship Sponsored by Androscoggin Savings Bank, Purdy Powers & Co and the Mainely Character Board Scholarship
I have the strength to get through difficult things, and that gives me hope.
Traci is an activist, an athlete, and a mentor, deeply committed to social justice. She found her voice and spoke up for herself and others. An active member of the Black Student Union (BSU) at her school, she immediately spoke up both in public and in the newspaper after the killing of George Floyd. She helped organize a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Traci reached out to younger students struggling with racism.
Her family has faced many challenges together. Both Traci and her sister work and contribute to the family finances and help raise their younger brother.
Traci was also a student leader for the Telling Room’s Young Writers and Leaders Program, helping young recent and first-generation immigrants to tell their stories. This gave Traci an opportunity to process her own struggles and to complete the important work of emotional healing by sharing her own experience.