Frosh beats odds to win Brown award

Michael Billings came to the Wharton School after a life of challenges. Wharton freshman Michael Billings took his life into his own hands when he left home to escape his alcoholic mother the summer before he entered high school. His accomplishments in the face of such adversity were rewarded last year when he was chosen as one of 20 black high school seniors to receive the first-ever Ron Brown Scholar Award. Each recipient received a total of $40,000 in scholarship funds which will be distributed evenly over a four-year period. Winners were selected from 1,500 applicants on the basis of academic merit, leadership potential and financial need. The award is named for the U.S. secretary of commerce who died in a plane crash in Croatia in April 1996. Recipients are chosen in part because they "share Ron Brown's traits of excellence, leadership, commitment to public service and a desire to make a difference," according to a press release. Billings, a native of Salt Lake City, met these criteria by maintaining a busy schedule during high school. In between playing three sports, he found the time to serve on the Mayor's Youth Community Service Council and establish a chapter of the Utah Teenage Republicans at his high school. Billings, who lived with a friend's family throughout high school, said that while his family situation made him more shy, it also "really opened my eyes." "I was able to see the lowest of lows," he said. "And at the same time I was able to see an enjoyment of life." Since coming to Penn, Billings has played junior varsity basketball and joined Check One, a group for multiracial students. Billings' mother is white, while his father, whom he never knew, is black. The Ron Brown scholarship program was established by the CAP Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to arts, education and the environment, in the wake of Brown's tragic death. At the time of the crash, Brown was facing a federal investigation for allegedly taking bribes. Billings said Wharton originally attracted him because of the "greed factor" but he has since realized "that money was low on my priority list." Although he is unsure about his future career plans, Billings said he hopes "he can do something to help others." In one of Billings' two essays for the scholarship application, he addressed what policy he would implement to improve communities. He described a program he would like to establish focusing on the education of at-risk teenagers. Billings said he chose this topic in part because of the role education played in helping him get to where he is today. "If you're educated, you can do things for yourself? and people will help you." Like Billings, Wharton's other Ron Brown Scholar, freshman Jean Paulson Tuffet, stressed the importance of educating youth. Tuffet, a freshman from Miami, said he wrote in his application that he "wanted to renovate the whole approach to schooling," adding that teachers need to be retrained "for city youth to ever realize their full potential." Wharton will add to its list of Ron Brown scholars this fall. The scholarship program recently announced this year's 20 recipients. One of them, Leah Hodges, will matriculate to the school this fall.