Education and Literacy Studies major Desmond Daniels ’21, ’22M is the first Arcadia student to be awarded the Hannah Amgott Memorial Scholarship, a prestigious award from the Delaware Valley Education Consortium (DVEC).

Each year, the DVEC awards five or six scholarships to college juniors who attend participating institutions in the consortium. Due to COVID-19, though, DVEC had to cancel their career fair that funds the scholarship, and the consortium was able to award only one scholarship this year.

“It’s an honor to be the one recipient they selected this year,” said Daniels. “It’s humbling that they recognized my hard work thus far in education and that it was a unanimous vote amongst the board members.”

Daniels credits his persistence as the driving force behind the recognition—when the career fair was canceled, DVEC didn’t know if they would be able to award a scholarship for 2020. However, Daniels had already submitted his application and wanted more information—specifically, if he could qualify as a senior for the scholarship if it were postponed. While on the phone with a representative of DVEC, Daniels learned that he was the only applicant to reach out with concerns.

In his essay, Daniels discussed how his love of teaching began in 10th grade at Abington Friends School (AFS) in Jenkintown when he volunteered in the Pre-K classroom every two weeks. The following year, the school asked him to work in the after-school program. Now, he’s a staff member and extended day teacher for AFS, where he’ll be student-teaching this fall.

“That opportunity was how I fell in love with teaching,” said Daniels. “I have been cultivating my skills as a teacher and continue to discover my passion of fostering and nurturing the children I work with ever since.”

The Hannah Amgott Memorial Scholarship provides $2,500 toward the recipient’s tuition the following academic year.