Vanderbilt announced on June 4 that eight students were selected to join the Ingram Scholars Program. These students receive full merit scholarships — including housing and tuition — and a stipend to complete a service project beneficial to the community.
Of these eight, six are first-year students, while two are sophomores. The program was founded by former chairman of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust E. Bronson Ingram in 1993 to bring together service with students’ career paths. All selected students were chosen based on their experience in service work and commitment to focusing on similar projects in their future careers.
The six new Ingram Scholars from the class of 2028 are William Cabaniss of Farragut, Tennessee; Eric Feng of Yorba Linda, California; Meredith Haber of Bondville, Vermont; Remington Holder of Amelia, Ohio; Katie Sasamoto-Kurisu of Chicago and Bennett Vernon of Los Angeles.
Past and future service work
Cabaniss expressed enthusiasm about the program, saying he hopes to continue his high school service work of combating hunger and food insecurity by aiding the local Nashville community.
“I wanted to apply to the Ingram Scholars Program because it’s one of the greatest scholarship programs in the country in terms of equipping students to go and make great changes in the future and providing the tools and teaching them how to do it in the long term,” Cabaniss said. “When I found out that I was accepted as an Ingram Scholar, I was so excited. It was one of the best days of my senior year.”
Cabaniss discussed the sense of responsibility he has felt since being inducted into the Ingram Scholars Program.
“As a Scholar, I want to continue to make a difference and do what I can because I’m the one who is here — I’m the one who has to make a difference,” Cabaniss said. “I have to use the resources I have to help others.”
Haber also said she wants to implement her past service interests and experiences into her Ingram Scholars service project. Growing up in a community with socioeconomic disparities, Haber designed, decorated and organized a thrift store filled with necessities such as clothes, winter supplies and dental hygiene. In high school, Haber created posters with positive affirmations and a suicide hotline number in response to a lack of mental health resources at her school.
“I focused a lot on providing resources to the community in a way that gave dignity,” Haber said.
Haber is interested in continuing her work as a mentor to students through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in her future summer service project, and she will begin to shadow other Ingram Scholars this fall in their work with various service-oriented organizations. She cited Next Steps, a program at Vanderbilt providing mentorship and community connections to neurodiverse students, as a point of interest for her potential work.
“I also want to explore new kinds [of service work], so I think this semester will be really helpful and nice for me to just get to know the Nashville area and the needs of the community and to forge the relationships with the kids in the program because then I will get to see how they interact with their communities,” Haber said.
Two sophomores — Kendall Reese of Katy, Texas and Jackson Heis of Dallas— were selected to join this newest class of Ingram Scholars based on their past service experiences, both on campus and in high school.
Reese was involved in the Jack and Jill program when growing up — an organization that focuses on fostering a relationship between a mother and her children and conducting service in the community. Reese followed this passion into high school, where she was in the National Charity League, a mother and daughter organization that focuses on philanthropy and the community. Last year, Reese did lots of work with the Black Cultural Center and attended sorority and fraternity philanthropy events.
Through her service work, Reese consistently focused on health disparities, tying into her studies as a medicine, health and society major. She said she is interested in the inequities in patient care quality.
“I’ve been wanting to focus my service project on health literacy and some sort of initiative that helps expand health literacy to lower income areas where health literacy — and just literacy in general — might be a problem,” Reese said. “[I] also [want] to [reach] a lot of immigrant communities that are just trying to go to a routine checkup at the doctor and maybe don’t necessarily know the words for things like the common cold or a fever.”
Heis said he also hopes to pursue service projects similar to his work in high school involving Best Buddies, a program dedicated to fostering connections within communities of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“My goal for any service project that I engage in is for it to have a positive, lasting impact on the target community so that when I leave, the project can continue to create benefits,” Heis said.
Heis shared that he was “thrilled” when he received his acceptance into the program.
“The opportunity to engage deeply in community service while being part of a supportive and like-minded cohort stood out to me,” Heis said. “The program’s emphasis on creating and leading impactful service projects aligned with my goals of making a meaningful difference in the world.”
Faculty leadership
Kelly Goldsmith, faculty director of the Ingram Scholars program, has led the program since January. She said she began her new role by holding one-on-one meetings with current and prior faculty members and staff as well as with alumni and current scholars.
“Given the program’s storied history, I wanted to approach this role with humility, openly acknowledging how much I had to learn from the Ingram Scholars community,” Goldsmith said in a message to The Hustler.
Goldsmith labeled the new class of Ingram Scholars as “spectacular,” expressing gratitude for the time she spent with them during the program’s orientation week.
“They are so smart, and their personal commitments to service are inspiring,” Goldsmith said. “Plus, they are a ton of fun.”
Goldsmith said she is always inspired by her time with the Ingram Scholars, citing their passion for service and curiosity as essential characteristics of these students. She believes that the skills that push the Ingram Scholars into service work are the same ones that will allow them to “thrive professionally,” and she said she hopes the program will allow them to further develop this “toolkit.”
“You need to listen more than you talk. You need to have empathy and understanding for those you serve, whether that is an underprivileged community or a team of professionals who report to you,” Goldsmith said. “Leadership is service. In any career, your professional success is informed by your understanding of people and systems.”
Ingram Scholars community
Holder shared that his experience within the Ingram Scholars Program was that of a tight-knit, family-like community. He said all Ingram Scholars strive to assist and inspire one another despite their varying interests and grade levels.
“To be an Ingram Scholar is to take deep appreciation and pride in serving your community. It’s taking the opportunity that has been given to you and passing that on to other people, like others in your area and others throughout Nashville, through the summer service project,” Holder said. “It’s taking your passion, your skills and everything that you have access to — at Vanderbilt and through your life and connections — to help people [who] don’t have those connections or those necessary skills.”
Cabaniss shared a similar sentiment, expressing appreciation for the community he has seen within the Ingram Scholars Program in the first couple of weeks.
“It’s a wonderful community of people who are dedicated to service but who also value intellect and academics,” Cabaniss said. “Those are two core parts of who I am, so I’m really excited to be in that community and grow as a person.”
Haber said one of the factors that drew her to committing to Vanderbilt was the community within the Ingram Scholars Program.
“I just feel like it’s a family — we all look out for each other,” Haber said. “It is nice to have people looking out for you as a freshman.”
