LYNN — Alysha Bingham wants to provide financial support to Lynn high school graduates and mentor them throughout their four years of college, with the help of the new foundation she has established.
Without scholarships, Bingham, 36, a first-generation college student, wouldn’t have been able to graduate from Northeastern University. So she knows the impact finances can have on a student’s education.
She also knows the value of mentorship. One of her former bosses showed her how she could achieve success, and as a result she’s already a dedicated mentor herself.
In the past, Bingham served as a Women in the Footwear Industry (WIFI) mentor, and has worked for the past 13 years for the Adidas Group. After getting her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in leadership from Northeastern, she found out she enjoyed the mentorship work.
Bingham is aiming to make an impact on some of Lynn’s high school students by establishing The Alysha Hill Bingham Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to “provide financial support and mentorship to inner city students to empower them to succeed as they go through their educational journey.”
“I just felt like I wanted to give back to our community,” Bingham said. “I learned from peers who are teachers in the community (and) found out a lot of students are getting accepted to college, but are not finishing because they don’t have that mentor aspect.”
This year, the foundation gave out its first $1,000 scholarship, to Lynn Classical graduate, Kimberly Avelar, a first-generation college student who will be attending the College of the Holy Cross in the fall with plans to study economics and mathematics.
Bingham, a Classical graduate herself, said what struck her about Avelar was not only her strong academics, which includes a 4.16 GPA, but the adversity the 18-year-old has overcome. Part of the application process included a personal essay on adversity the student has faced and overcome. There were more than a dozen applicants, who needed to be first generation students and women.
Avelar grew up without a father and her mother was sick throughout her childhood with a rare central nervous system disorder, Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), that primarily affects the eye nerves and spinal cord. She said the disease caused blindness in her mother’s right eye and affects the sensation of her legs.
She has two older siblings, but due to the large difference in age, Avelar said she felt like an only child growing up. From a young age, it was just her and her mom at home, but her mother’s illness led to her spending a lot of time in the hospital.
“It just inspires me,” Bingham said. “I don’t know how she was able to push forward through all that turmoil she experienced.”
Avelar said she had to make sure she stayed focused on something that would benefit her so she tried to focus on schoolwork. She said she had the support of friends and family, which helped her keep the drive she needed.
During high school, Avelar was a part of La Vida Scholars, a nonprofit that helps high-achieving, low-income Lynn students attend colleges with minimal debt. Avelar is receiving financial aid for college, but said she was relieved to learn she had received a scholarship from Bingham’s foundation. Her mother’s illness keeps her from working much to pay for Avelar’s tuition.
“It felt like a great honor to have something I accomplished myself,” Avelar said. “I felt relieved because now it’s less of a cost to my tuition.”
Another challenge Avelar spoke about in her application was transitioning from being a Latino attending a diverse high school to a “predominantly white” institution at Holy Cross. She said the difficulty will be encountering different viewpoints than what she’s used to, but that it’s important to keep an open mind.
Bingham will act as a big sister to Avelar during her time at college. If she runs into financial difficulty at school, such as being unable to afford books, Bingham will raise money for her to continue to go. She’ll help Avelar with obstacles she experiences personally or academically.
That’s important, Avelar said, because there’s going to be rough times that she’s going to need support with mentally. It’s important to have someone to talk to through good times and bad so she can voice her opinions and not keep everything closed up.
Bingham is hoping this year is just the beginning. She plans on expanding the foundation, providing scholarships and mentorship for more students each year. What would be ideal is helping more than one student each year — her schedule allows her to handle up to five on her own. Eventually, she hopes to recruit other women to become mentors with the foundation as well.
A kickoff event for the foundation will be held July 27 at the Lynn Museum, where Avelar will be honored as this year’s scholarship recipient. The purpose of the event, which will be a fashion show and include remarks from state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn), is to raise funds for future scholarship recipients.
