Fall 2026 Winner of the Resilient Student Scholarship

Alexander Armstrong

The newest winner of our Resilient Student Scholarship is Alexander Armstrong. A freshman at DePaul University, Alexander is studying Business Administration with a minor in Digital Marketing. Alexanders essay demonstrates his immense resilience, along with his desire to give back to his community.

Read Their Essay Here:

My name is Alexander Armstrong and I am currently a Freshman at DePaul University in Chicago. I am a graduate of Marist High School and I plan to study Business Administration, with a Minor in Digital Marketing. I am the only child of a single parent. My mother is a Elementary School Principal, so you can only imagine how important education was in our household. I definitely could not catch any breaks!!! I learned very early how important having a strong work ethic was, especially when I heard stories of my immigrant grandparents and the struggles they encountered coming to America from Greece to build a better life. I also realized that traditional education systems in this day and age, made learning difficult. I wanted to experience learning not just read about it. I truly needed a space to be creative and to be innovative and I found that being an entrepreneur, along with using digital platforms, would be the best path for me to pursue in order to find career satisfaction. With AI taking over and digital platforms creating so much space for entrepreneurship, I truly believe that the possibilities are endless for me to pursue. But I almost didn't make it...

On February 24, 2024, I was diagnosed with a rare and deadly blood disorder (Severe Aplastic Anemia) that carried a 70% fatality rate, within a year, if left untreated. Only 2 out of every one million people is diagnosed with this life threatening disorder, every year. This, we discovered was virus induced, after I contracted COVID and the Epstein-Barr Virus (mononucleosis) simultaneously. What has transpired since then is nothing short of a miracle. I am currently still in treatment and not yet fully recovered, but over the course of the last year, I have spent over 38 days in the hospital, had blood transfusions 2-3 times per week, and spent an entire week in the hospital for a grueling 8-hour a day, 5-day, immuno-suppressant therapy that yielded blisters all over my body, extreme nausea and pain. I was placed on the Bone Cell Transplant list at the University of Chicago Hospital and was preparing for a Bone Marrow Transplant that required chemotherapy and radiation. Prior to embarking on a Bone Marrow Transplant, we discovered that my body was responding to the Immuno-Suppressant therapy treatment and that we would postpone the transplant in hopes that my body will continue to recover without needing the transplant.

I am currently in remission and responding well. We have been blessed to have the best doctors at the University of Chicago and I am also part of a 7-year study to determine the impact of COVID on young adults who are diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, as I have been.

My mother, who is a single parent, helped save my life. She never left my hospital bed and made sure that God was at the center of my healing. She prayed for me and advocated for my care all while learning about this blood disorder that she had no idea about. She is a 32-year Educator, a devoted Elementary School Principal, who also continues to support her building while at the hospital with me. She raised me alone and has always been all that I had in this world. She became my voice when I couldnt speak and never left my side during my darkest days. I am her only child and she is my Mother

All of this for a kid who never even had a nosebleed prior to this diagnosis...go figure.

While the emotional and physical toll of this has been challenging, I am a fighter and I know that God has a plan for me and is truly ordering my steps and covering me. I am in recovery and plan to live a long and productive life where I can make positive contributions to my community. My hopes are to also become a mentor for young people who are seeking more than just a traditional education. Creating mentorships for students to be innovative and to take risks with their creativity and their learning is a priority for me. I plan to set up a foundation that would provide mentoring and creative spaces for young entrepreneurs to learn about effective business models and how to use social media and digital platforms to market their businesses.