FHE Health Announces Winners of National Scholarship Competition That Drew Record Number of Applicants
The national behavioral healthcare provider FHE Health has announced the 2021 recipients of its "Hope for Healing Scholarship." Now in its second year, the annual award goes to two distinguished students (one graduate and one undergraduate) in the mental and behavioral health and/or psychiatry field.
This year's winners were among 600 applicants (up from 471 last year), representing many top schools nationwide. After a rigorous selection process, the FHE scholarship committee chose eight finalists. Two of them learned last week that they would receive the 2021 Hope for Healing Scholarship:
- Amad Amedy, a medical student at the University of Tennessee, specializing in Neuroscience and Behaviors.
- Tamera Miller, who will be earning a Bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Washington Tacoma.
From Adversity to a Vocation in Mental and Psychiatric Health
Adversity plays an important, formative role in both Amedy and Miller's stories. In Amedy's case, he was a newborn when his family arrived in America as Kurdish refugees, having fled genocide in Northern Iraq. Growing up in a poor immigrant community in Nashville, Tennessee, Amedy worked at his family's pizzeria while juggling academics, sports and other extracurriculars. He went on to earn a full ride at Wesleyan College and a Fulbright Scholarship. His goal as a future doctor is to help under-served communities like his own access affordable psychiatric care.
Poverty as well as adversity of a different kind shaped Miller's childhood. Both of her parents were addicted to drugs and alcohol, and her mother had severe mental illness. When Miller did not turn in her homework and failed every grade K-8, her parents did not ask why. By age 13, Miller began using drugs to cope. The next years were tumultuous. Eventually, Miller got sober at the age of 25 and was able to restart her studies, even if it meant working full-time to save up for a deposit on an apartment while occasionally living out of the back of her old Chevy Trailblazer. Miller's dream is to start a halfway house named after her mother for women who have experienced trauma.
About FHE Health:
FHE Health is a national treatment center that provides high-quality behavioral health services to patients from all walks of life and with a wide variety of addiction and mental health needs. From its headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Florida, FHE Health serves patients locally and from around the country with specialized treatment programs for addictive disorders and other diagnoses such as mood disorders, depression, anxiety and traumatic disorders.
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