May 11, 2021—Senior Thomas Smyers has been awarded a four-year, $20,000 scholarship as the grand prize winner of this year’s Stop the Hate contest, an initiative of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Additionally, Shaker Heights High School will receive a $5,000 anti-bias education grant. The contest celebrates Northeast Ohio students committed to creating a more accepting, inclusive society by standing up and speaking out against bias and bigotry as they compete for the chance to win a prestigious award.
You can read more about the award and hear Thomas read his winning essay here.
Thomas, who will be attending Harvard University in the fall, focused his essay on his late grandfather, Steve Minter, a trailblazing African American leader in government and philanthropy, who marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, 56 years ago. Thomas and his grandfather had planned to retrace those steps, but Mr. Minter, the former head of the Cleveland Foundation, died unexpectedly in 2019.
“I like to think that even without retracing my grandpa’s steps on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I am walking in his footsteps and helping to bend the arc of this nation toward a more equitable and just future,” Thomas said. “My grandpa would be proud of me, but he would want me to keep going. Won’t you join me on the journey?”