Current Scholars
 |
Jade Wilkerson
|
Through the course of her freshman year, Jade continued many of the service activities she was involved with throughout high school, including tutoring elementary school students with Preston-Taylor Ministries and mentoring girls from her high school, M. L. King Magnet, with the L.I.F.E. Project. Additionally, she was able to become a mentor for In Full Motion, an ACT preparation program designed to improve the ACT scores of underprivileged Nashville students and prepare them for college. With Girl Scouts Project L.E.A.D., a program that assigns college female students as Girl Scout leaders to youth in rural and urban, at-risk communities, she became a Girl Scout leader for middle school girls at Smithson-Craighead Academy. Being a former Girl Scout and recipient of the Girl Scout Silver and Gold Awards, Jade was able to use what the Girl Scout community shared with her and give it back to others. At the end of her freshman year, Jade was blessed with the amazing opportunity through the Ingram Scholarship Program to empower middle and high school African American and Hispanic girls of Chicago’s at-risk, gang-infested communities by teaching them hip hop dance. She conducted this project with Enlace Chicago, a gang intervention organization, and Lawndale Community Church.
After returning from her adventures in Chicago, Jade found a way to bring hip hop dance to the Nashville communities. As a member of the Vanderbilt VIBE Premiere Hip Hop Dance Team, Jade and her fellow dance mates taught hip hop dance once a week to at-risk, middle school girls and boys of the Martha O’Bryan Center in East Nashville. The kids got the chance to perform two dances in VIBE’s annual hip hop show at the end of the fall semester. At the same time, she maintained her commitment to service with In Full Motion in preparing youth to take the ACT. In conjunction with In Full Motion, she tutored elementary and middle school students in math through the Charles Davis Foundation, another organization that supports at-risk youth in Nashville. During her sophomore year, Jade was able to continue her Girl Scout leadership, but this year she and a fellow Ingram Scholar, Alexis Simpson, led an elementary troop at the Martha O’Bryan Center. This year, her girls sold Girl Scout cookies, learned proper table etiquette, had a talent show, learned the importance of friendship, and celebrated the 100th year anniversary of Girl Scouts. As her junior year approaches, Jade plans to continue her service as a tutor, mentor, and Girl Scout leader. She is grateful to be a member of the Ingram Scholarship Program because it has taught her to be more sustainable and more efficient in her duty to serve the Nashville community.
Connect with Vanderbilt