The FINAL scores of our five scholarship finalists have officially been tallied up!!

After over three months of rigorous application review, a competitive interview round, and a spirited week of voting where OVER 20,000 VOTES WERE CAST(!!!), the three winners of The 2026 Desire To Inspire Scholarship have finally been selected!

Please join me in congratulating Kamgharida Ejiogu, Liya Kassa, and Camila Weitzel, our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of The 2026 Desire To Inspire Scholarship, respectively!!

Kamgharida is a high school senior from Bethesda, MD, who will be receiving the $2000 prize!

Liya is a high school junior from Buffalo, NY, who will be receiving the $1000 prize!

Camila is a high school senior from Mission Viejo, CA, who will be receiving the $500 prize!

I would like to thank every single person who helped to make this scholarship a reality for the EIGHTH year in a row!

It is still unbelievable to imagine that this scholarship was originally an off-the-wall idea that I came up with almost a decade ago; an idea that ultimately came about as a direct result of my desire to help others attain a quality education after I had been blessed with a full-tuition scholarship to attend college at The University of Miami!

It is incredible to see the kind of impact that this scholarship has had on not only the students who have applied to it, but also on everyone involved in the process, from the scholarship judges to every single one of you who contributed to the scholarship fund. As always, I’m humbled and honored that so many people decided to donate to the scholarship fund this year and that the judges took the time out of their busy schedules to help review the applications that had been sent in.

I am always amazed at the number of scholars who decide to apply for the scholarship each year and at how incredible many of the applicants are! These scholars have such bright futures in store for them!

Thank you again to everyone who played a part in making this scholarship a success! I’m looking forward to continuing to help young scholars achieve their hopes and dreams! And a HUGE congratulations again to all five of the amazing finalists; you are all remarkably inspiring and are destined for greatness!!! 🙌🏽🙌🏾🙌🏿