Sorbrique Grant '07
"The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe in the Beauty of Their Dreams"
Eleanor Roosevelt’s powerful statement is the personal
motto of our 2007 JFK Award winner, Sorbrique “Sorby” Grant who
graduated in May, 2007 with a double major in Government and American
Studies. This young Jamaican-American woman, who says she was “raised”
through her work at the Cornell
Public Service Center, dreams of a life spent advocating for urban
communities.
Sorby hopes she can soon play an influential part in forming public
policy in this country. She has planned a two-step path to arrive at
that goal. Since graduation she has been living in New York City and
working with Teach for America
helping people to learn English as a second language. Her goal as an ESL
teacher is to make “a meaningful contribution to the conversations
surrounding the policies and practices that affect urban youth.”
Immediately after her two-year stint at Teach for America, Sorby will
enroll in the Goldman School of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. It is
there that our JFK Award money will be put to good use in helping to
defray the high cost of tuition. Sorby plans to combine the “high
quality education” she received at Cornell with her her hands-on
experience teaching
ESL. She will add to that powerful background everything that she
learns at Goldman about how to analyze the needs and problems in local
urban communities. Armed with this combined knowledge and skill, she
will be ready to effect substantive and sustainable change through
writing public policy to protect the populations that are normally the
target of discrimination.
Sorby Grant displays her award certificate
“As a first-generation American who has experienced the unequal
distribution of wealth, political unrest, extensive violence, and strife
of a developing nation,” writes Sorby, “I have always striven to fight
injustice and inequality.
She has already made a substantial contribution to Cornell and the
Ithaca community through an extensive array of volunteer and nonprofit
projects. The Cornell Public Service Center was Sorby’s deepest
involvement: as the Student Manager for three years, she has helped
numerous students to become involved in all sorts of community programs.
Sorby oversaw the 40-person New York City division of the
Alternative Breaks program, led trips to multiracial organizations
on and off campus, and developed eight-week training curricula for
Sylvia’s Place, a New York
shelter for homeless youth.
Susan Murphy, VP of Student Academic Services calls Sorby “one of
the most distinguished student leaders on campus” because of an “empathy
and insight that are well beyond her years and a willingness to immerse
herself in challenging settings, allowing others to trust her and
permitting herself to grow.” One of the most challenging of these
positions of responsibility in which Sorby immersed herself is On-Site
Volunteer Services, a student-run non-profit that provides Cornell
students with diverse opportunities in community development. Having
been chosen one of ten
Cornell Tradition Fellows enabled Sorby to contribute significant
financial support to this worthy cause.
Susan Hitchcock, director of financial aid, presents our award to Sorby Grant
Continually active in fighting prejudice in the form of racism,
homophobia, and sexism on campus and in the community, Sorby has been a
leader in Empathy Assistance Referral Services, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual,
and transgender (LGBT) groups such as Haven, Sylvia’s Place, and AIDS
awareness programs. She has also worked with
Cornell Urban Scholar’s Program (CUSP) at Cornell. Last year Sorby
won the Steven Fellows Award for her dedication to providing a higher
quality of life for people with disabilities in Tompkins County. This
human rights award recognized her for work in raising the level of
awareness of people with disabilities in the community.
Sorby also served as Coordinator and Operations Manager for
Into
the Streets, a nonprofit which organizes 30 agencies with local
businesses and over 500 volunteers for Cornell’s largest day of service.
Over her spring breaks, Sorby traveled to North Carolina as a trip team
leader, building houses for the disadvantaged under the auspices of
Habitat for Humanity.
It’s a privilege for the Class of ’64 to help Sorbrique Grant achieve
her mission “to work toward inclusiveness, recognize that difference
does not mean disorder, and reach out to those marginalized within the
policy processes.”
