- Hometown:
- Chesterfield, MO
Leyla (she/her), who has lived in the same town her entire life, is very much looking forward to exploring Bloomington, learning the ins and outs of a new city, and building a home away from home. She will study psychology, a first step towards fulfilling her childhood dream of practicing medicine. While she used to favor a specialty in pediatrics, she has more recently turned her focus towards psychiatry. Leyla will also study English, and her favorite books are More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth, The Content of Our Character by Shelby Steele, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. If she could travel to a fictional place, however, she’d attend Camp Half-Blood with the protagonists of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan! Leyla is most proud of the impact she had on her school’s community after developing and presenting an educational series on the evolution of African enslavement into mass incarceration, inspired by an extended trip retracing the path of the Freedom Riders. Her favorite place is in the car on I-64, playing her favorite songs with the windows down. Leyla is the fourth Scholar from the John Burroughs School and will hold the Willis Hickam and Alice Adelle Freese scholarships.