Alumni Association scholarship helps pave the way for Elissa Harb

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Association awarded $125,000 in scholarships to deserving UL Lafayette students this year. One of those scholarship recipients, Elissa Harb, received the Alumni Association’s endowed scholarship and is extremely grateful for the financial support the scholarship has been able to provide.

Originally from Lebanon, Harb decided to study abroad to further her education. “Studying abroad was one of the choices I had to make to secure a more certain future, despite the hardship of leaving home,” she said.

When she first came to UL Lafayette, she felt it was hard to get involved with the campus community. However, once she started exploring different organizations, she felt UL Lafayette could be her second home.

“When I decided to get involved, starting with the International Student Council, the entirety of my experience changed for the better and has only continued to go up since,” Harb said.

Harb was looking for financial support to help fund her education and stumbled upon the Alumni Association’s scholarship application. She was thrilled when she found out she had received the scholarship.

“I was sitting with my younger brother before I ran to my parents to tell them I received the scholarship. It was very rewarding to let them know I received this scholarship because of everything they've done and given me that has allowed me to come here and finish my studies,” Harb said. “It means so much, considering my parents, namely my father — a dentist and my absolute hero — are funding the entirety of my education until I, hopefully, become financially independent with a stable job. Seeing the unstable and unsafe conditions back home at this moment, any amount of help I can offer my father in that regard is amazing.”

As Harb approaches the end of her undergraduate career, she plans to follow in her father’s footsteps and pursue a career as a dentist. This scholarship will help with that process, too.

“Dental applications are expensive, and dental school tuitions are terrifyingly more expensive. This scholarship has helped take a bit of the burden off through the application process,” she said. “It might appear to be a small amount of money next to the hundreds of thousands that might be waiting for me, but it is more than enough because even the smallest amounts help. I am forever grateful. I only hope to keep making my parents, the people who have believed in me, and myself proud from here on out.”

To learn more about the Alumni Association’s scholarship program, visit the Alumni Association’s website.

Photo Caption: International Student Elissa Harb celebrated her scholarship with family at the Alumni Association's Scholarship Recipient Social. Photo Credit: University of Louisiana at Lafayette