Jasmine stated, “In Arabic, the word ‘AtIka’ means noble born. But in my family, it’s the name of the thirteen-year-old grey Lincoln town car we turned into a taxi … It was where Atika carried us in her arms for two years.” Jasmine began to work nine years ago to help her family. She said, “On the bus ride to my client’s home, I read the fact that promoted my conversion to veganism: Animal Agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector … I made the connection between human lives and animal lives clear to my family and forged my own path to cruelty-free, noble living. Following my ninth-grade conversion to veganism, I was compelled to tell the stories of those lives because in Atika they had become an extension of my own.”

     In high school, Jasmine was one of seven Americans selected for an international scholarship to study microbiology, robotics, and Arabic in Cairo, Egypt for four weeks. She chose to do a plant-based project, posing diet change as a viable method for reducing suffering. At the same time, she interacted with Egyptian families and registered 23 members to a vegan coaching program, as well as distributed veggie pamphlets.

     Back in Miami, Jasmine set up tables on the Florida International University Campus and discussed veggie diets with students and faculty. She also worked long distance with an English vegan group to help them apply for grants, and supervised eight adults in this process. In addition, she worked to bring the vegan group’s school lunch information to Florida.

     Jasmine’s high school science teacher stated, “Jasmine effectively communicates the intersectionality of sustainable consumption. Her discussion consists of science, but also of ethics, poverty, racism, and fiscal policy; this makes her outreach intellectually stimulating for all participants, myself included. I along with a majority of faculty and the student body, have started to transition to plant-forward diets as a result of her advocacy. It is due to her passion that I have been vegan since March of last year.”

     Jasmine will be pursuing a college degree in Biological Physics with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies or Environmental Studies. She hopes to create a nonprofit that will provide environmental, STEM-geared, plant-forward education to inner-city youth. Jasmine sums up her message this way: “I want to help people find their kindness.”

The deadline for the next scholarship contest for high school seniors graduating in 2022 is February 20, 2022. To see rules and past scholarship winners, visit vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

To support additional scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or send donations to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.