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Nettie Rattray

4x

Finalist

General information

Age
19
Gender
Female
Ethnicity
Black/African
Religion
Christian
Church
Presbyterian (USA)

Hobbies & Interests

  • Beach
  • Exploring Nature And Being Outside
  • Communications
  • Ethics
  • Government
  • Public Speaking
  • Journalism
  • Law
  • Lacrosse
  • Spending Time With Friends and Family
  • Movies And Film
  • Criminal Justice
  • Volunteering
  • Makeup and Beauty
  • African American Studies
  • Babysitting And Childcare
  • Travel And Tourism
  • Exercise And Fitness
  • Human Rights

Reading

  • Travel
  • Leadership
  • Biography

I read books multiple times a month.

Bio

My heritage is Ethiopian and my ongoing relationship with my birth family in Africa informs my intentions to be an advocate for the global poor. Along with my little brother and our single mom, I’m a "townie" in a resort community on Long Island, N.Y. This summer is my fourth working in the kitchen of a snack bar at a beach club. We're a low-income family and I'm working very hard for everything I have achieved so far. I was fortunate enough to attend high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, where I played varsity lacrosse and was inspired by our school motto, "Non Sibi" ("Not for Myself"). Today, I'm a Pell Grant student at the University of Pennsylvania, where I plan to major in History and minor in Africana./Global Studies. Eventually, I'd like to become a lawyer to use my communication skills for the benefit of the voiceless and am very inspired by the work of Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative. While my financial aid and merit awards at college are generous, and I'm super grateful, significant financial hurdles remain: There's mandatory health insurance, travel costs in the thousands, books, etc. Over four years, I'll need around $43,000 more in outside funding (on top of my work study and my student loans) to graduate without debt so large it would prevent me from pursuing my dream of public interest law. ---- Note to scholarship donors and judges: I do not ever use A.I. in my essay writing and strive always to write in my authentic voice!

Education

University of Pennsylvania

Bachelor's degree program

2026 – 2029

Majors:
  • History
Minors:
  • International/Globalization Studies
  • African Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Phillips Exeter Academy

High School

2022 – 2025

East Hampton High School

High School

2021 – 2022

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Majors of interest:
Political Science and Government, Law, History, Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other, Public Policy Analysis, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
Desired degree modality:
Full-Time
Medical school interest:
No
English as first language:
Yes
Homeschooled:
No

Career

  • Politics reporter and copy editor

    Newspapers · The Ditch Weekly

    Jan 2024 – Jan 2026

  • Copywriter

    Journalism · The Daily Pennsylvanian

    Jan 2026 – Present

  • Dreamer

    Civic & Social Organization · Disney Dreamers Academy

    Jan 2025 – Present

  • Intern

    Political Organization · John Avlon for Congress in NY-1

    Jan 2024 – Jan 2024

  • Kitchen and Wait Staff

    Food & Beverages · Amagansett Beach Association

    Jan 2022 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Law Practice, Legislative Office, Communications
Dream career goals:
Human Rights, Equal Justice, Equality Advocacy
Work experience:
3 years
Has nursing license:
No
Leadership experience:
Yes

Military

ROTC:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Volunteering
  • Philanthropy
Ryan T. Herich Memorial Scholarship
The description of Ryan T. Herich, on his scholarship page, calls out as if speaking directly to me. Ryan and I share an unusual combination of interests, across politics, history, geography, and cultural anthropology. He sounds like someone you’d want to visit the Forum with in Rome, to debate the origins of democracy. He sounds like someone who would have been a friend. I grew up between two worlds. I was born in a literal mud hut, made of mud and corrugated metal, in rural Ethiopia, into a family who don't have access to so many things that most Americans take for granted, including educational opportunities, healthy food, safe housing, clothing without holes and patches, and regular health care. My birth mother, Dulame in Ethiopia, lives with HIV; she and my little brother have never had reliable access to doctors or medicine when they need it. My little brother, Degenet, will never even get to go to high school. Through adoption, I came to the United States, where I have had incredible opportunities my little brother in Ethiopia could hardly imagine, from vacations at Disney World to a chance to play on traveling sports teams, take dance classes, learn to play piano, and just come home to a warm, comfortable house and a refrigerator full of food. Unlike most people adopted internationally, I am fortunate enough to have been able to remain in regular contact with my African family. We send letters back and forth several times a year, sharing news and photographs, and I was able to travel home to see them in 2019. It is because of this relationship that I have become acutely aware of the painful inequities of the world. This awareness is what drives me to study politics. I want not only to understand how government policies are shaped, but to become an advocate for those like my birth family who are too often ignored. Probably the greatest advantage I have had as an American is a very privileged education. Through financial aid, I was able to attend Phillips Exeter Academy and am now enrolled at George Washington University, where I can see the White House from my dorm roof; I cross paths with senators and CEOs on the campus every week. My education has given me horizons that are incredibly broad, and at college my eyes have been opened to the ways in which the issues I care most about (economic inequality and unequal access to justice) are human rights issues that cross boundaries. My professors at GW — including Dr. Nabila Hijazi, in a writing course focused on Syrian refugees, and Dr. Oluseyi Agbelusi, in an Anthropology class on the African diaspora — come from around the world. My research projects have ranged from political science (a two-month project examining radicalization in online forums) to anthropology (giving a presentation about political portraits on Ethiopian garments at a textile museum) and history (examining how American public-service announcements on TV have shaped environmental policy). It’s my greatest privilege to be able to see how the dots are connected. My plan is to use my education and my global perspective to eventually become a lawyer working in the human rights field. My birth family in Ethiopia don’t have access to the rooms where important policy decisions are made, but I will, and I will be their voice.
Kim Moon Bae Underrepresented Students Scholarship
Picture a tiny African girl dressed like Rainbow Dash from "My Little Pony" in a kindergarten class in a fishing village in Nova Scotia, surrounded by white kids dressed in camouflage for deer-hunting season. That was me. I bounced around singing the theme song from "Scooby-Doo," already used to being stared at whenever my mom and I walked into the supermarket or stopped at Moe’s Shack for an ice-cream cone At eight, I moved to Long Island with my adoptive family, only to find myself once again not fitting in. In middle school, I was the Black girl who some Black classmates said was never “Black enough,” while to some white classmates, I was a problem, too. In my freshman year of high school, three junior varsity football players were suspended for wearing a white pillowcase like a hood and calling me the N-word and “Nettie from the jungle” in a Discord chat. For years I was jealous of kids who seemed to belong to one group, who had “normal” names and straight hair. I wanted to be one of them, to erase the confusion I caused just by existing. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized not fitting in is my superpower. It has given me empathy for those who are judged “different,” and I can truly talk to anyone. I know what it feels like to be the outsider. But my story as a Black adoptee in a white family is not only about standing out in North America. It is also about the identity I carry with me from Ethiopia. I was born in a rough, remote town 200 miles south of Addis Ababa. My grandmother, Abebach, is a wood carrier, bent under loads as big as a Volkswagen. My mother, Dulame, sells fruit in the market of Ziway, where she lives with my little brother, Degenet, in a lean-to tent beside the road. Unusually for an adoptee, I have remained in close contact with my birth family. For ten years, my mother and I have exchanged letters and photos by mail. When I was twelve, I traveled back to Ethiopia and met Degenet, my Tasmanian Devil of a little brother, for the first time. He ran wild through the market, flailing, shouting, protesting every restraint. Surrounded by strangers from America, Degenet’s chaos was his act of self-defense. I saw myself in him. That trip cemented a determination in me: I must make the most of the chances I have been given, both for me and for Degenet. Every day I live with my Ethiopian family in the back of my mind. I may be a privileged American now attending an amazing college where I can see the White House from my dorm room roof, but I am also the daughter of a fruit seller and sister of a boy who will never learn to read. Life in America, with its abundance and its Netflix, makes it easy to forget poverty, but I cannot forget. I keep a framed selfie of Degenet and Dulane on my dresser to remind me daily who I am and why I am here. My Ethiopia heritage is why I am studying public policy and political science on a prelaw track. I want to use my unusual position to help give voice to who are voiceless. Many college students’ experiences of the “Third World” are defined by an Instagram photo holding a dark-skinned toddler with flies on her face. I am that child, and I want to be in the rooms where important decisions are made.
Patrick Roberts Scholarship for Aspiring Criminal Justice Professionals
Last week, I sat in a poly-sci seminar at George Washington University called “The Politics of Information,” thinking about how quickly AI-assisted policing technologies are developing, and I started worrying about how slow the law moves by comparison. I’m 18, Black, on a pre-law track, and to me the issue of AI and policing seems genuinely urgent: These tools are being deployed now, but the criminal-justice system doesn’t yet have adequate laws to control them, or training for law-enforcement officers to protect people like me –or my little brother. My brother is 15. He’s polite, smart, and going places. Even so, he’s been racially profiled several times in stores in his young life; he’s often told me about how it makes him feel like he’s already assumed guilty of something just for existing. I cannot help but see the emerging AI law-enforcement technologies through a lens of my family’s personal experience. As a student, I look ahead to a career as a lawyer with an organization like the Equal Justice Initiative because I believe strongly in advocacy for those whose voices aren’t heard clearly, whether it’s because they are an ethnic minority, young, or poor. Who will be impacted most and first by these new AI systems? Well, us. AI technologies evolve so rapidly that the legal system has to race to keep up. By the time laws or policies are drafted, new versions of the technology (with new capabilities) are already in use. Best practices lag behind. Officers may not have the training to understand how algorithms are built or how the data sets used to train them can themselves have flaws that reflect blank spaces in science or in demographic understanding. How can lawmakers and regulators keep up? I’m especially worried about facial recognition systems. There’s evidence that many of these technologies make significantly more errors for Black people than for white people. In the Scientific American article “Police Facial Recognition Software Can’t Tell Black People Apart,” it was reported that U.S.-made recognition algorithms are often trained with too many white faces, so they perform much worse on Black faces. This isn’t just a statistical quirk if you are the person being wrongly identified. What if my little brother is misidentified or even wrongly arrested? He is a talented kid who could have a future as a scientist or lawmaker himself, but this sort of error could change everything. One of the problems that I’m learning about is how historic racism and profiling have led to an over-representation of Black people in criminal databases....and this is the same data being used to train AI. A cycle is being created. In short, this problem is more than abstract to me and I want to join those getting out ahead of it and harnessing AI in positive ways. I believe that “error rates” that disproportionately affect people of color should be treated as civil-rights issues. As a first-year student at college, I’m getting involved by doing an internship on Capital Hill with a U.S. Senator, so I can learn first hand how laws and policies are made. On campus, I have joined the GW Women’s Pre Law Society and will be reporting for its newsletter on this and other issues. I believe that being pre-law means being willing to push for justice in emerging areas, including technology. If we don’t act now, the speed of technological change will keep outpacing the protections the American people need.
TJ Crowson Memorial Scholarship
This spring, in my last semester of high school, I had the privilege of taking a history class called " Law and American Society.” Our teacher, Ms. Williams, had us study several landmark cases that have appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court over the long decades of American history, beginning with the defining moment of "Marbury v. Madison," when the role of the court was defined forever and the court was cemented in power. The most interesting case for me, however, was a very recent and very important one: "Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina." There were two reasons why this case resonated with me so strongly. Firstly, because Ms. Williams instructed us to write either a mock dissent or mock majority (agreeing) decision, an exercise that taught me so much about how courts work and how arguments are made. Secondly, because I myself am a Black student who came to my boarding school, Phillips Exeter Academy, through a program for low-income students that some in America today might consider an example of that scary and terrible thing “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” My resulting final paper was a fully fledged, nearly nine page dissent in the "Students for Fair Admissions Inc" case. As I wrote in my opening paragraph of my dissent, the majority’s decision in "Students for Fair Admissions Inc" turns "a blind eye to the current state of institutionalized racial inequality in American society and, for this reason, its logic is fatally flawed.” The decision to undo a system of affirmative action, I wrote, was based on wishful thinking about the current state of equality in America. “The Court is arguing that systemic injustice and discrimination will simply disappear after a time period that can be predetermined,” I wrote in my closing and concluding paragraph, “and that the need for action to promote inclusivity in the college admissions process will then cease to exist, but that narrative has no relation to current reality. There is no expiration date on racism. Central to the decision in 'Students for Fair Admissions' is the wishful thinking that affirmative action will one day soon no longer be necessary. In Grutter, the Court estimated that the need for race-informed admissions would no longer be necessary in 25 years. Justice Roberts, speaking for the majority in 'Students for Fair Admissions,' optimistically says that that time clock will run out in only three more years. Sadly, the Justice is mistaken. That day is not yet in sight. Racism persists. In today’s decision, the Court bans the medicine before the illness has been cured.” Today, I am a high school graduate who, because of financial aid and because of my own very hard work (ant not just DEI) will be attending college in the fall– again on full financial aid– to study political science on a prelaw track, with a long-term intention to follow in the footsteps of Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative. I believe that my success is a good example of why the Supreme Court majority was simply incorrect in its decision in "Students for Fair Admissions."
Churchill Family Positive Change Scholarship
Ever since I was a little girl of six or seven years old, I’ve been aware of the inequalities that shape all of our lives. I grew up in a low-income, adoptive single-parent household, in a resort town where the "one percent" come for vacation, and this unusual point of view taught me very early how uneven the starting lines are for people. So much depends on where you're born and to what kind of family you are born. Add onto this the fact that I am adopted and remain in regular contact with relatives in Ethiopia, who are among the poorest of the world's poor, and I feel like I have an unusual and very personal perspective on economic inequality. But my life so far has also taught something else important: that education can be a miraculous key to change. My ambition is to use my education not only to elevate my own life, but to advocate for people like my Ethiopian birth family who have such a hard time having their voice heard. In college, I plan to major in political communication and government so I can get the tools I’ll need to work as a policy advocate or lobbyist for nonprofits focused on poverty and equity. College will equip me with more than just knowledge-- it will provide me with the mentors and hands-on experience I need to understand how government systems and the power structure work so I can influence them from the inside. I’m especially excited about attending a university where service is part of the academic culture. I want to get out into the community to do research and take part in internship programs that will allow me to work directly with, for example, a policy institute or maybe even on Capitol Hill. Beyond coursework, I know that being surrounded by people from many backgrounds will push me to think more critically and to be a more well-rounded person. In high school, I was lucky to meet kids from around the world (from Mexico City to Hong Kong and Lebanon) and our late-night conversations really have shaped who I am. I’ve already learned so much from friends and classmates whose perspectives differ from mine, but college will expand that circle even further. As an international adoptee in a multi-racial family, I often joke that I sometimes feel like a diplomat, because I have always had to move between groups and identities and to translate across economic and ethnic divides. My aim in college is to continue to gain skills as a community builder and coalition builder across these dividing lines. My goal is not just to make a living but to make a difference in the world, so that the world we live in can be just a little more fair
Nettie Rattray Student Profile | Bold.org