Ever a learner and a seeker looking to deepen her understanding of the world and of herself, Jermisha Hinton has taken herself on journeys around the world and back again. With a graceful self awareness, Jermisha has spent years working to build herself up through forging connections and doing the real work of caring for herself and for her communities. “As one of seven children, I didn’t always have anyone around to help me with my work and Higher Achievement [a supportive program for students in Middle School] gave me the attention and guidance that I needed in middle school. Towards the end of my Higher Achievement journey, I could see a noticeable difference in my grades and my character. I learned so much about myself in the program. Including how much I was capable of doing when I gave it my all.” And give it her all she did. Jermisha continued with Higher Achievement as a volunteer and then an intern, maintaining and growing the connections with mentors that had given her so much and in turn, giving of herself to the now younger students. Those mentors worked with Jermisha to apply to other programs and secure places with Mikva Challenge and the Global Youth Leadership Academy.

Now you see how before Senator Elizabeth Warren took on the phrase, “Nevertheless, she persisted,” Jermisha was already a well practiced persister. Jermisha chooses to stretch and grow and push and experience and connect, time and time again. How fitting then, that in 2020, Jermisha, through Mikvah Challenge, traveled to Iowa to work on Senator Warren’s campaign and be partners in persistence. Through the Global Youth Leadership Academy, Jermisha went to Switzerland, where she traveled all over the country experiencing and savoring “beautiful hikes, scavenger hunts, picnics and meaningful conversations.” All of this practice in cultivating relationships and experiences to both cast herself wider in the new and to deepen herself in the familiar, has led Jermisha on many journeys.

Jermisha has survived her pandemic senior year and has persisted in connecting and expanding her circle all the way to the prestigious Posse Scholarship – a leadership scholarship that is all about students connecting as they work to be both rocks of support to each other and rivers of change and care within their college community at large. Jermisha will venture on as a Posse Scholar and attend Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon.

We wish Jermisha all the best and we wish for her care, for her joy in exploring and connecting, to continue to be both a balm and engine for her as she takes her next steps. Shine on Jermisha!