NYC Student Awarded $10,000 Michael Casserly Scholarship

  • The Council of the Great City Schools recently presented Janice Alexis, a 2024 graduate of New York City Public Schools, with the Dr. Michael Casserly Legacy Scholarship for Educational Courage and Justice. Sponsored by Curriculum Associates, the $10,000 college scholarship will be used by Alexis to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering at Syracuse University in upstate New York.

    The scholarship is part of the Dr. Michael Casserly Legacy Award for Educational Courage and Justice, named after the Council’s former executive director. The annual award, now in its fourth year, is presented to a person who has made outstanding contributions in the field of Grades K–12 urban education by taking a courageous and passionate stance on the issue of educational justice and equity.

    This year’s awardee was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has been a member of Congress since 1981 and has served in the United States Senate since 1999. Throughout his Congressional career, Sen. Schumer has demonstrated a commitment to increasing the quality of education and decreasing cost burdens in higher education.

    Alexis attended the Science Technology and Research Early College High School at Erasmus in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she mentored 11th grade students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers and assisted them through the college application process.

    After she obtains her bachelor’s degree, she plans to apply for a 4+1 program in her third year to gain a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and eventually specialize in medical devices.

    Alexis, whose family immigrated to America from Haiti in 2011, wants to lessen the mistrust many minority communities have of the medical field and health care providers, often caused by their previous negative experiences with the health care system.

    “I want to help people gain trust in doctors, nurses, facilities, and medical devices so that people no longer come into [doctor] offices as their last resort,” Alexis wrote in an essay she submitted for the scholarship.

    “I am thrilled to award the scholarship named in my honor to Janice Alexis,” said Casserly. “Her desire to decrease racial disparities in medical care is truly inspiring. I believe that she has the potential to become a future leader in the medical field, and I am excited to support her educational journey.”