A New NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship for Brooklyn Residents

Attention Brownsville, East New York, and Ocean Hill Residents!

A revered Brooklyn organization has stepped up its community commitment by establishing a scholarship to help NYCHA residents achieve their goals of college education.

Nehemiah Economic Development, Inc. (NED) will provide $50,000 over 10 years towards the Kofi Hormeku Scholarship, which will annually award $1,000 to five NYCHA residents living in Brownsville, East New York, or Ocean Hill who attend a City University of New York college. The scholarship falls under the umbrella of the NYCHA-CUNY Resident Scholarship program.

“It is an honor and an obligation to provide this scholarship,” NED Executive Director Mawuli K. Hormeku said. “We live in an area with a high concentration of NYCHA developments so we created this scholarship for the benefit of the surrounding community. These are our neighbors and we have to be accountable for what happens in our neighborhood, we have to make sure everyone in our community has the same opportunities.”

NED is a non-profit dedicated to uplifting the Brownsville and East New York community through education, economic opportunities, and the redevelopment of abandoned properties in the area. It was founded by Kofi Hormeku, a former international banker, in 1994. The elder Hormeku immigrated to Brooklyn from Ghana and was one of the first homeowners of a Nehemiah house, affordable homes built in the 1980s in the Brownsville area through a partnership between the City of New York, local churches, and community organizers. 

Mawuli Hormeku says that naming the scholarship after his father is a way to “give him his roses before he’s gone. My father is a humble man who’s spent his whole life giving back to the community. He always wanted to make sure the community had the same opportunities as his children: we had a backyard, so he built Nehemiah Park, we went to college, and so he wants to see everyone else do the same.” 

NED also funds a merit scholarship to high school seniors from the community who are attending four-year colleges. Visit www.nehemiahed.org/scholarships for more information.