Fatimah Alhassan (Ed ’20) remembers the day she received an important phone call from Student Financial Services. She and her mother were in the living room of the family home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Alhassan had already been accepted to UVA, but she and her family were still busy trying to assemble an aid package that would allow her to attend the University. 

“When I got the call, I was taken aback,” she recalled. “I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I got the scholarship.’ It meant that I was able to go to college without having to worry about incurring any debt or having to take out loans. I knew, moving forward, that I could focus on my studies and explore what college has to offer without having to worry about picking up a part-time job just to be able to support myself. It was a really happy day for me. And my mom was just so proud.” 

With the addition of a Blue Ridge Scholarship to her financial aid package, Alhassan—a first-generation college student—had overcome the last barrier to her dream of attending UVA. With a challenge gift to create the Blue Ridge Scholars program in 2014, John Griffin (McIntire '85), a member of the University's Board of Visitors, created the program to support undergraduate students with exceptional academic promise and significant financial need. In 2020-21, 213 undergraduates received Blue Ridge Scholarships.

Alhassan was just 16 years old when she arrived at UVA and graduated this spring at age 19. A kinesiology major, she is now preparing for medical school with the goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. But as an undergraduate she made the most of her student experience. On her own initiative, she spent a semester abroad at the University of Exeter during the fall of her fourth year. She lived in the International Residential College dorm her first year, and afterward, she made a point to get involved in the international community at UVA, eventually becoming a peer mentor at the IRC.