Breiana Campbell, Class of 2016 and daughter of Rodney and Charlene Campbell of Bridgeport, has been named a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Campbell is one of 1,000 recipients from across the nation selected to receive this full college and postgraduate scholarship out of over 50,000 applicants. Campbell has enrolled at Dartmouth College for her undergraduate studies and also plans to attend medical school.
As a student at Notre Dame, Campbell has consistently been in the top 10 of her class while taking a challenging AP-level curriculum. Campbell has been a four-year member of both the Indoor and Outdoor Track teams, serving as a captain during her senior year. She is a member of the National and Spanish Honor Societies and was elected by her peers to serve as President of both organizations. She has regularly volunteered with Notre Dame’s Campus Ministry program and Care Club.
In 2015, Campbell was selected as Queen of Bridgeport’s Barnum Festival, from a pool of candidates representing all area high schools. Campbell has volunteered with the Golden Hill United Methodist Church, serving as a captain for their meal preparation team assisting area low-income and homeless families. She has also volunteered her time at St. Vincent’s Hospital and with the Stratford Emergency Medical Services. Campbell is currently completing her senior internship in the Neuroradiology Department at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Notre Dame’s principal Chris Cipriano commented, “We couldn’t be prouder of Breiana not only for her academic and service-related achievements of the past four years, but also for receiving this tremendous scholarship award. She is a wonderful example of Notre Dame and one who has proven our mission successful of building character, faith and intellect in each student.”
According to the Gates Millenium Scholarship homepage, “The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established in 1999 to provide outstanding African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Hispanic American students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest. Continuing Gates Millennium Scholars may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science.”
“In 1999, a bold vision of what America’s future would look like began to take shape. In that view, America’s leadership would include 20,000 individuals, all people of color, who would make a significant impact on the future direction of the nation. Coming from among the most financially needy students and attending the nation’s best colleges and universities, they would represent the extraordinary promise inherent among all highly academically capable individuals, no matter what their background. Moreover, the planners envisioned that the researched experiences of the students’ matriculation and retention, the fact of these individuals’ extraordinary successes to terminal degrees, and the testimony of their voices, would spark conversation, and perhaps debate, leading to public policies and added philanthropic contributions in support of similarly able and financially challenged young people. That vision of Bill and Melinda Gates was funded by a historic grant of more than 1 billion dollars to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF)—still the largest single gift to any scholarship organization.”
For additional information contact Chris Cipriano at 203.372.6521 or ccipriano@notredame.org
