Hunan Yousef (left) receives the big check as winner of this year’s Liza Farrow-Gillespie Young Woman Scholarship
Derek Lipscombe reviewed all the applications – 10 in all. There were essays, school transcripts and a letter of recommendation.
The goal was to pick one exceptional student to receive the Liza Farrow-Gillespie Intrepid Young Woman Scholarship which provides $10,000 annually to a college-bound high school senior who has the namesake’s “do anything, go anywhere” spirit.
“Each of the candidates for this scholarship were worthy, which is a testament to the hard work that the faculty and the administration have done at the Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet,” said Lipscombe, who is managing counsel at Toyota North America and president of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter.
Lipscombe has been working with the DISD Law Magnet school folks for a decade, including the ACC DFW’s sponsorship of the Street Law education program.
Farrow-Gillespie, who died last July after a long battle with ovarian cancer, was a Dallas business transactions lawyer who clerked for Judge Sanders and was known for living life fearlessly. She sailed around the world in a 54-foot sailboat, encountering monsoons and actual pirates.
Law Magnet Principal Garet Feimster asked Lipscombe to be on the selection committee.
He initially whittled the 10 applications to the top five and then the top three. But one application stood out. The young woman had overcome so many obstacles already in her life to get where she was.
“My life has taught me that by raising others we raise ourselves, and with every choice I make to see strength, whether it be in myself or others, the closer everybody will be to seeing the board even out for women in this game of life,” the student wrote.
The scholarship went to Hunan Yousef, who is attending Yale University in the fall, where she plans to study ethics, policy and economics.
“I hope to make the world a better place,” Yousef said in accepting the scholarship Monday on the steps of the Law Magnet school. “Thank you DISD and Dallas Education Foundation for giving me so many opportunities and the ability for me to give back to my community.”
The scholarship is funded in part by a donation from Jim Thompson, who was a client and friend of Farrow-Gillespie.
“Scholarships such as this one are vital for students especially those from low-income families because they provide them a better chance to break the cycle of generational poverty,” Lipscombe said. “They help to open doors, but also are important as they allow students to recognize their own potential early in their academic career.”
For more information about donating to the scholarship fund here.