{"id":449019,"date":"2026-08-31T17:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449019\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:20:12","slug":"eight-oakland-seniors-awarded-northeastern-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449019\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Oakland Seniors Awarded Northeastern Scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2013 The newest cohort of Northeastern Oakland Opportunity Scholarship winners recently gathered inside a sunny campus meeting space, just days before they were set to move to the university to begin their higher education journeys.<\/p>\n

The scholarship, now in its third year, covers full tuition, campus housing, food and fees for the eight Oakland-area high school seniors. After completing one year in Oakland, the students may choose to stay in the Bay Area or continue their education at any of the other 13 campuses across Northeastern\u2019s global network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most beautiful campuses that I\u2019ve ever attended, and I\u2019ve been to a lot of colleges,\u201d Oakland Unified School District superintendent Denise Sadler told the students and their families during the recent late-morning welcome event. \u201cKnow that there are people who don\u2019t even know you who are supporting you and standing with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scholarships are awarded to eligible students as part of the university\u2019s mission to foster connection between Northeastern and the communities that surround its campuses. To qualify, a student must indicate high need on their federal student aid application and demonstrate extensive commitment to public service within their school\u2019s community. Many students are nominated for the scholarship by a high school advisor.<\/p>\n

As nearly 1,000 undergraduates from around the world journey to the campus early this month to begin the school year, the eight scholarship winners will use their local knowledge of the city to become natural leaders, said Allie Littlefox, assistant vice chancellor of planning and innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Oakland is part of your superpower,\u201d Littlefox told the students. \u201cShare that with your peers. Share your expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Oakland Opportunity Scholars are Arsema Ezghiamn, Miles Harmon, Anese Henesley, Amy Ho, Jalal Hussain, Houtian Li, Emily Lucas-Orellana and Mateo Ortiz Rivas. They come to Northeastern from a number of Oakland public high schools, including Skyline High School, AIMS College Prep High School and Castro Valley High.<\/p>\n

\"AEmily Lucas-Orellana said she can\u2019t wait to explore the Oakland campus farm and join the backpacking club. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Lucas-Orellana\u2019s hand shot up first during the welcome event when students were asked to describe their chosen major.<\/p>\n

Biology and humans\u2019 relationship to the natural world are topics that have always fascinated her, she said while seated beneath a pair of olive trees, part of the campus\u2019s expansive arboretum<\/a>. In her spare time, she enjoys photographing plants and watching fantasy movies that focus on nature from Studio Ghibli.<\/p>\n

\tNortheastern Global News, in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Sign up for NGN\u2019s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That passion recently led her to a community health internship at the East Oakland Youth Development Center, where she learned about various careers within the Bay Area\u2019s public healthcare landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love how I can get into environmental, cellular, public health or biotech,\u201d said Lucas-Orellana, 18, who grew up in the Elmhurst neighborhood of East Oakland. \u201cThere\u2019s so many things I can do with biology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas-Orellana said she can\u2019t wait to explore the campus farm, join the backpacking club and interact with the plant drying space beside the Natural Sciences Building.<\/p>\n

She said she feels deep gratitude when remembering the day she learned of her scholarship award. It couldn\u2019t have happened without her mentors at Skyline High School, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was bawling my eyes out,\u201d she said. \u201cMy advisors were crying with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AMateo Ortiz Rivas said her mother was speechless when she told her about her scholarship acceptance. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

A first-generation college student in her family, Rivas, 18, came to the Oakland campus unwavering in her intentions for her Northeastern journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehavioral neuroscience,\u201d she said when asked about her academic interests. \u201cI look forward to becoming a neurosurgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

If her trajectory follows that of more than 100 undergraduates on the Oakland campus since 2006, Rivas may have the chance to join the Young Lab<\/a>, founded by biology professor and behavioral neuroscience researcher Jared Young. Students under Young acquire foundational lab skills through research on microscopic worms called nematodes, learning that gives them a leg-up in Boston\u2019s competitive lab placements.<\/p>\n

Rivas said her mother was speechless for a moment when she told her about her scholarship acceptance, then let her pride of her daughter\u2019s accomplishment wash over her.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotional, happy,\u201d Rivas\u2019 mother, Rosarea Rivas, said in Spanish. \u201cI felt so proud because she worked so hard for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AJalal Hussain will join the politics, philosophy and economics degree program, with the hope of one day using his co-op to learn about immigration law. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Hussain, 17, attended the scholarship welcome meeting more familiar with Northeastern\u2019s Oakland campus than most of his scholarship cohorts.<\/p>\n

He had taken two university-level courses at Northeastern over the previous two summers, living inside the campus dormitories while he studied, he said. One was an Introduction to Statistics course in 2024, the credits from which he said he will transfer to Northeastern. The other was an Introduction to Sociology of Gender.<\/p>\n

Because of his positive experiences on campus, he was thrilled to receive the notice earlier this year that he had been granted an Opportunity Scholarship, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom, when I first saw her, she held me in her arms and fell into tears,\u201d recalled Hussain, whose mother and older brother, Saleh Hussain, joined him at the welcome event.<\/p>\n

Hussain will join the politics, philosophy and economics degree program, with the hope of one day using his co-op to learn about immigration law, he said. Hussain\u2019s parents came to Oakland from Yemen around 27 years ago, and growing up, he watched them struggle with matters related to their legal status and path to citizenship. Though his father achieved U.S. citizenship, Hussain\u2019s mother remains a permanent resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve just been working to try to get me a better life,\u201d Hussain said. \u201cI want to make the process easier and be an advocate for immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2013 The newest cohort of Northeastern Oakland Opportunity Scholarship winners recently gathered inside a sunny campus meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[179,951,133744,143,145,144,1424,83644,21992],"class_list":["post-449019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-community","tag-high-school","tag-northeastern-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-opportunity","tag-public-service","tag-scholarships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}