Congratulations, Kennedei Harris, on Being the 2021 Recipient of the Max McElhaney Memorial Educational Scholarship!
Rocky McElhaney Law Firm is thrilled to introduce Kennedei Harris, our 2021 recipient of the Max McElhaney Memorial Educational Scholarship! We had an extraordinary group of candidates to choose from this year, but Kennedei burst through like a ray of sunshine.
Kennedei’s start to 2020 was everything she had hoped for: a loving and supportive family, excellent grades, an active life in her church, and the drive to take each day by storm. But her world turned upside on March 20, 2020, when her beloved sister and best friend, died from a new virus that was just beginning to wreak havoc in her home state of Georgia. Two days later, before she could even process her first loss, her father – her hero – passed away from the same virus.
By the time COVID-19 was finished with Kennedei’s family, it had stolen a sibling, a parent, and an aunt. For most people, such back-to-back loss would have broken their will. But Kennedei is not most people. Instead, she put her faith in God and leaned on Him for support, while never losing her drive for excellence in her schoolwork or her philanthropy.
“This challenge has shaken my very existence forever,” Kennedei explained to us. “I now know it will serve to shape the young woman I am destined to become. But through it all, I am so grateful for the relationship my family and I have with God. He has given me inner strength I never knew was accessible to me. As time passed, I have learned to smile again and look forward to new days and new possibilities. So as each day comes, I know that I am blessed beyond measure.”
Despite all she was dealing with, Kennedei still maintained an impressive GPA, making the National Honor Society for the last two years. She participates in school activities as well as church programs, such as the choir outreach program, tutoring for low-income and at-risk students, and the distribution of school items. She’s logged over 200 hours of community service. Kennedei credits her family and her faith as the support she needed to achieve her goals and to be always unapologetically herself, or, as she might say, to walk by faith and not by sight.
As one of her former teachers explained, Kennedei “possesses all of the attributes of a future teacher – organized, extremely patient, kind, caring, respectful, and helpful.” That is what Kennedei hopes to be: a teacher. She has been accepted to Spelman College, where she will major in Early Childhood Education. Kennedei’s journey to “become one of the many leaders of this world who promote and embody the definition of change and difference” starts this Fall at Spellman. There, she will learn how to use her many skills and talents to build a better world by teaching and shaping generations of new learners and thinkers.
Her drive, her passion, her belief in the power of education, and her love for her family—these are things Max McElhaney treasured, and they are the attributes that Rocky McElhaney wants to honor with the Max McElhaney Memorial Educational Scholarship. The Scholarship was founded in 2015 to help Education and History majors in need of financial support, to help them pursue their educational dreams and goals. It honors Max’s story and life – the gold standard of love in Rocky’s family – by helping others.
Congratulations, Kennedei, on your selection this year. We are so excited to see what your future brings and to help you be a leader who inspires positive change.
If you’d like to apply for the 2022 Max McElhaney Memorial Educational Scholarship or learn more about our previous winners, click here.