In the media: Alex Ashley ’22 featured in Jamaica’s national newspaper
Alex Ashley ’22, the 2022 George Wharton Pepper Prize winner, is featured in the May 19 edition of The Gleaner, the newspaper of record for Jamaica.
Alex Ashley ’22 and his dad visiting with and thanking former Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller for facilitating the Lafayette-Jamaica Scholarship.
The story describes his journey from his native Jamaica to Lafayette, recalling his humble roots and the hard work it took to overcome many challenges, including financial issues and racial biases.
“This a something they don’t tell you when they talk about people who go to study overseas. Essentially, you are the only person here, so you have to figure out everything on your own,” he said in the article.
The chemical and biomolecular engineering major and mathematics minor describes how he met other Jamaican students at Lafayette and built a support system.
“School isn’t just meant for you to get an education. School is a place for you to network and meet people because to make it in the world and to reach places, it’s not only what you know, but who you know,” he said.
Ashley is also a Lafayette-Jamaica Scholar, a program established in 2014 during former Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s visit to Lafayette.
He will move on to Drexel University in the fall to join the doctorate program in chemical engineering to study materials in renewable energy. He is featured in Episode 6 of Need a Lift?