NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – Newport News-based non-profit We Believe in Your Child Too is helping more students in Hampton Roads pursue their dreams.
The organization provides scholarships to area students with the hope that one day those students will invest their gifts back into the community.
They also provide scholarship recipients with a mentor to help answer any questions they might have.
10 On Your Side interviewed the non-profit’s co-founder, Kevin Lawrence, last summer.
He says he and his brother Doug wanted to find a way to improve the community by investing in local kids.
Since 2017, they’ve given out more than $25,000 in scholarships to 14 different students, starting with Ayana.
This year in 2023, they awarded nine students with scholarships and raised more than $11,000.
Bethel High School Graduate Autumn Billips was awarded the Ayana Brown Nursing Scholarship award.
Brown graduated from Bethel in 2017 and is now working as a registered nurse at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Billips said she’s happy to have someone like Brown to look up to.
“To have someone to look up to, someone who’s already experienced where I am trying to get to, seeing that you’ve already made it and I want to get there, so it’s really awesome having that example,” said Billips when talking about Brown.
Billips will be attending Winston Salem State University this fall.
Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about We Believe in Your Child too – head to their website.