• 2009 Berkeley Community Fund High Hopes Scholarship recipient
• Holy Names University

I want to go to college because I want to help people for the rest of my life. I want to be the first person in my family to go to college. I am determined to succeed and I will not let anyone or anything stop me. I come from a family where graduating high school is a miracle and all I want to do is go to college to show everyone that a kid who has been in foster care for 16 years can be somebody. I will not become a victim of circumstances. All the adversity I have been through has made me a strong and determined person.

Shahidad graduated in December 2012 with a B.A. in Psychology.