Our Inspiration

Rian Ferria (Walker), was never going to show up on the radar of a traditional scholarship program. Raised by her grandfather since early childhood, Rian’s world fell out from under her when he passed away suddenly in 2009. After his death, she was placed with her biological father, who had never been a consistent part of her life. Her grades, which had been very good in elementary and middle school, began to decline. She missed 86 classes during her freshman year of high school, leaving her father’s home multiple times, and often had no place to live. Understandably, her GPA suffered. As a teen she walked and ran all over the coastal cities of Mississippi on her own. Nonetheless, she maintained her interest in computing and taught herself to program in multiple languages. She put her tech skills to use to support herself, purchasing old phones on E-Bay, refurbishing and reselling them.

Her high school counselor, Karen Gifford, took a special interest in Rian and was able to get her registered under the McKinney-Vento Act as an unaccompanied minor. She was the person who encouraged Rian to apply for the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing which led her to Dr. Lee and Mississippi State University, and connected her to Ruthe Farmer.

Like many students from low-income backgrounds, the college journey wasn’t easy for Rian. From her used laptop dying at the end of her first term, to lacking a safe car to get to work and school, to attending conferences without a credit card to check into a hotel room or call a Lyft, to affording interview clothes for her job search - the hurdles were frequent, unrelenting and nearly catastrophic.

Fortunately, Dr. Lee, Ms. Farmer and many others rallied around Rian to help her overcome those barriers and navigate the college experience. Having earned her software engineering degree, today Rian works as an Information Security Consultant at Bank of America and is eager to invest in young people like her - many of whom do not have a Dr. Lee looking out for them.