Ja’kylah Powers, a Verona Area High School senior, was the recipient of a $400,000 scholarship from the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County at a special celebration at Verona Area High School April 1.
Boys and Girls Club of Dane County (BGCDC) President and CEO Michael Johnson says that Ja’Kylah was selected for the scholarship from 94 students in a highly competitive process and that the selection committee chose Ja’kylah for her leadership, character, commitment to community impact, and future academic goals.
“We had business leaders, educators, a couple of parents and Boys and Girls Club staff who went through all those applications, and she stood out because she was so impressive,” Johnson tells Madison365. “In elementary school, she went through nine different schools because of some of her family transitions. Then she went to two middle schools. So that’s 11 schools in her young life. What’s even more impressive is she’s been working full-time since she was 16. She works at Jersey Mike’s [Sub and Sandwich Shop], She’s volunteered and helped to remove some of the student debt for some kids at one of the schools.”
Ja’kylah wants to study law at Florida Memorial University and eventually be an attorney who helps people with mental health issues.
“She wants to be an attorney and she wants to study psychology. She’s been accepted to 15 colleges and universities,” Johnson says. “And when I think about her situation as a young lady who has definitely had some challenges … her grandmother had cancer, her aunt is raising her … I feel like it’s just an amazing story.”
Johnson called Ja’kylah earlier this week while she was working at Jersey Mike’s to tell her the good news about her winning the big scholarship. She took the call in the bathroom to have some privacy.
“I think I scared all of the customers at Jersey Mike’s,” Ja’kylah said at the press conference announcing the scholarship. “I was just screaming in the bathroom.”
Ja’kylah’s scholarship was the largest scholarship ever given by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County. Johnson says he believes the scholarship is one of the largest in the country.
“We know for a fact that this is one of the largest. I haven’t seen on record, outside of Bill Gates, of a singular scholarship of the size to one student,” he says.
The funding for the scholarship all came from an anonymous family foundation, Johnson says, that had a connection to the BGCDC. “They had actually never donated to the Boys and Girls Club before, but they saw all the work that we do in the schools, and they knew that we had kids in 25 colleges and universities across 25 states …almost 5000 kids …. and they wanted to be a part of it,” Johnson says.
The scholarship committee felt the competition was so strong that they awarded $5,000 scholarships to four additional students.
“So what happened was the committee felt like the runner-up was a very, very strong number two,” Johnson says. “We had an executive from Alliance Energy, who was so moved, that she was like, ‘I’m gonna put up my own money.’ And then somebody else put up another $5,000. So we’ve already told the other students, but we will make that announcement next week that they will be getting $5,000, too.”
Johnson says that he hopes this special moment inspires other donors to step forward and support more students like Ja’kylah, helping to create life-changing opportunities for the next generation. Through his job at BGCDC, Johnson has spent years raising money for people who need it, but this one, he says, “was very special.”
“These pay-it-forwards are amazing, but this one with Ja’kylah was very special. If people really knew some of the challenges this young woman has gone through, they would be amazed. It’s remarkable that she’s in this position that she’s in,” Johnson says. “She is smart. She is so poised. She’s so young and working full time, going to school full time, and helping to raise her siblings.
“She’s volunteering and worried about how other students are going to eat, and helping to raise money to remove their debt. She’s a very, very special person,” Johnson adds. “I walked out the door that day, and I was sitting in my car, and I teared up. I was like, ‘Man, I’m very lucky and thankful to be in a position to help young people like her.'”
