As her high school graduation drew near, 18-year-old Sajanah King recalls her anxiety beginning to grow as she wondered if her dreams of attending college would be possible.
The first in her immediate family to pursue higher education, Sajanah felt the odds were stacked against her.
“Since I was a freshman, I knew I wanted to be the first; I’d always had that dream,” she said, “but I didn’t know how to get there.”
Sajanah worked hard, garnering acceptance at her dream school, but despite her determination, the weight of tuition and other expenses loomed large.
“If I didn’t get the San Diego Foundation scholarship, I don’t think I would have come this far — probably not at all,” she admitted.
Finding Her Way, and Her Voice
For Sajanah, a Lincoln High School graduate from Southeastern San Diego, that award was a turning point. It wasn’t just financial aid. It was validation that her dreams mattered.
And most importantly, it meant that she could accept her spot at Morgan State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Baltimore, without the burden of wondering if she could afford it.
“I want to be a lawyer,” Sajanah said. “I have always been active in the community, and I know for a fact that I have a thing for helping people. So I want to defend people from injustices.”
Sajanah’s journey to Morgan State began years earlier when she joined the Young and Prosperous Foundation, a San Diego nonprofit that mentors and inspires students to pursue higher education.
A college tour to the East Coast as a freshman introduced her to HBCU life. It was stepping onto Morgan State’s campus during that trip that she felt an immediate sense of belonging.
Setbacks, Strength and Self-Belief
The path there wasn’t smooth. In her speech at San Diego Foundation’s scholarship celebration this summer, Sajanah reflected candidly on setbacks that nearly derailed her: academic struggles, personal challenges and moments of self-doubt.
“I’ve been the girl who was overlooked, underestimated and ready to give up,” she told the audience, “but I’ve also been the girl who made the comeback.”
Senior year marked her resurgence. She returned to cheer, won her campaign for ASB president, was crowned Homecoming Queen and became “Miss Ebony Pearls” through a youth leadership program.
She was accepted into multiple colleges and received several scholarships. But it wasn’t until she’d secured the San Diego Foundation scholarship — her biggest yet — that she could finally embrace the dream she had once thought out of reach.
“Those of us who can’t afford it know we can’t afford college — it’s something we all think about,” she said. “But you just always have to try. Fill out that scholarship, and keep filling them out. Just have faith in yourself. There are people out there who want to help kids go to school.”
It wasn’t until right before graduation that Sajanah was notified she’d received SDF’s scholarship — part of the Community Scholarships Program — and she remembers agonizing over the financial burdens.
“I just said, ‘Sometimes you’ve got to just do it, and once you’re there, you’ll figure it out,’” Sajanah recalls thinking. “I had to make it work because you never know what might happen the next day — a scholarship can just pop up in your email.”
A Future Built on Purpose
Now a political science major with aspirations of becoming a lawyer, Sajanah is charting a future rooted in advocacy and service. She hopes to help others who need it, fueled by the resilience she has already demonstrated in her own journey.
Sajanah’s story is unfolding at a critical moment. Across the nation, HBCUs — long pillars of educational access and cultural identity for Black students — face ongoing financial challenges.
HBCUs have long been underfunded, despite their vital role in uplifting Black students and communities. Now, shrinking public funding and smaller endowments have forced many institutions to do more with less, stretching limited resources across scholarships, student services and campus programs.
The Trump administration recently announced a one-time $500 million funding boost for HBCUs and Tribal colleges and universities. However, the Brookings Institution warns that the administration’s broader economic agenda — including cuts to social safety nets and policies that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income Black families — could undermine HBCUs in indirect yet equally serious ways by reducing the very supports their students rely on to persist in college.
For students like Sajanah, community-based scholarships bridge the critical funding gap, making the difference between a deferred dream and a college education. Today, with resources stretched thinner, these kinds of supports are all the more urgent.
Her story embodies the reason San Diego Foundation invests in students: to open doors, build futures and show young people what’s possible when a community believes in them.
San Diego Foundation is one of the largest non-university scholarship funders in San Diego County. Since its inception in 1997, San Diego Foundation’s Community Scholars Program has awarded nearly $60 million to more than 15,400 students — almost three-quarters of whom became the first in their families to attend college.
San Diego Foundation is deeply committed to ensuring students like Sajanah can pursue higher education, and remain steadfast now more than ever — at a time when resources and financial aid grow increasingly scarce — in supporting students to achieve their college aspirations.
They hope Sajanah’s will inspire others to give, so that future students, too, can rise above financial barriers and “just do it,” as Sajanah did.
“The scholarship I am receiving is helping make my future possible,” she said at the scholarship celebration. “Thank you for letting me show not just who I am, but who I’m becoming. This is just the beginning.”
