Also-Known-As
Adoptee Excellence Scholarship

Look for the 2022 Also-Known-As Adoptee Excellence Scholarship in late February! Please subscribe to our newsletter, website feed, facebook group, or instagram account to get notifications when registration opens.

Also-Known-As is thrilled to announce the 2021 winner of its annual Adoptee Excellence Scholarship. This year, we received eighty-eight applications from across the country, each of a high caliber. Candidates were internationally adopted at various ages and from thirteen countries: Belarus, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine. We were moved by these young adoptees who have pursued personal and academic excellence, distinguishing themselves at home, school, work, and in their communities. We were inspired by reading their stories: making positive decisions and pushing forward through tremendous personal circumstances; demonstrating compassion for peers and others in need, both within and outside of their community; collaborating in amazing ways that reached beyond simple leadership; and engaging others while creating new programs and opportunities to address people’s unmet needs. It was truly a privilege to be able to get to know each candidate, and we feel honored that they were willing to share their stories with us. 

Comprised of international adoptees, members of the Also-Known-As scholarship committee carefully reviewed each application to find candidates that best exemplified the scholarship’s mission: to honor an adoptee student whose integrity, drive, and leadership has led them to serving others while pursuing a life of purpose and significance. Furthermore, the committee sought out applicants who, while facing and exploring their own adopted and racial identity—as well as the complexities and nuances that accompany it—have also used their unique experiences to help others find their own voice and place. This process proved to be extremely thoughtful and thorough; no two candidates were the same, which made our job both exciting and difficult. 

Please join us in congratulating our 2021 Also-Known-As Adoptee Excellence Scholarship winner, Allemu Slattery! An inspiring candidate, Allemu exemplifies an outstanding sense of self-initiative and resilience, combined with a profound and humbling empathy. A recent high school graduate from Minnesota, Allemu and his sister were adopted from Ethiopia when he was seven years old. Faced with the difficulties of language and cultural immersion at a young age, over time he transformed personal learning challenges into strengths, only to excel academically by the end of his high school career. Graduating in the top 5% of his class, he also tutored math and literacy at his school, volunteered as a little league baseball and middle school basketball coach, and earned specialized state certification as a soccer referee. Within the greater community, Allemu continued to give back. He founded a food distribution project called “Oodles of Noodles” that disperses surplus goods to food shelters and raised money to honor fallen veterans on Memorial Day at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. He went from apprentice to employee at a non-profit bike shop that provides teens with exposure to small-business ownership and specialized skills in repairing bikes. Of all these, Allemu’s proudest accomplishment so far has been for his birthplace: he created a successful GoFundMe campaign for Roots Ethiopia, a non-profit that builds schools, provides educational materials and Covid-19 supplies to impoverished areas of Ethiopia. Through his generosity, this adoptee has been able to serve many communities on different scales. He will continue this work by attending the University of Minnesota to pursue Architectural Design and create energy efficient affordable housing in urban areas. One day, he hopes to become the principal architect at his own design firm. 

Congratulations, Allemu!  Also-Known-As could not be more excited to celebrate Allemu’s accomplishments and future endeavors. We applaud the example you set for adoptees across our country and wish you all the best for the years ahead. During these challenging times, adoptees like you and your fellow applicants serve as fine representatives and beacons of hope for a brighter future.  Also-Known-As is rooting for you and each candidate every step of the way!