CAS junior Krystal McLeod has been awarded with the highly competitive Truman Scholarship, an honor given to public service leaders across the country. The award recognizes her for co-founding “My” Right to Learn, an education initiative. She will receive $30,000 toward her graduate education, where she hopes to earn a law degree and a Masters in public administration focusing on nonprofit policy.

McLeod launched “My” Right to Learn last summer as an eight-week program during which disenfranchised students took classes to increase literacy and engagement in civics. McLeod’s was inspired set up an education program through her family background, which allowed her to see how public schools could fail their students.

“I come from a family of 12,” McLeod said. “Some of my siblings graduated from our local high school functionally illiterate. They didn’t have the tools they needed to succeed in college. My mom really depended on the public school, and it failed her.”

McLeod said she always intended to give back to disenfranchised communities as soon as she got the chance. That chance was given to her when she was awarded a Gallatin Global Fellowship and a Dalai Lama Fellowship from NYU to fund her initiative. Lisa Kail, the assistant director of the Office of Civic Engagement and NYU campus adviser for the Dalai Lama Fellows Program, said McLeod deserves the scholarship.

“She works so hard at everything she does and embraces every opportunity with a unique blend of joy and humility,” Kail said. “Time spent with Krystal is time spent with a constant smile on your face.  Her can-do attitude make you believe anything is possible.”

Richard Jung, a CAS student counselor for the Opportunity Programs at NYU, mentored Krystal throughout the process and cited McLeod’s own merits as the reason for her success.

“I’m incredibly proud of what she’s accomplished,” Jung said. “It took a tremendous amount of time and energy to get the program running, and she managed to do it all while juggling a full course load and handling
multiple responsibilities.”

McLeod spent a year and a half developing the program before its launch last summer. “My” Right to Learn will run throughout the spring but will pause during the summer so McLeod can reconsider its finances.

“To do the program takes a lot; I want to make it sustainable,” McLeod said. “We want to sit down to analyze the situation this summer because we want to figure out what the program will look like and we have to look for
sustained funding.”

McLeod gained experience teaching during her time volunteering at Generation Citizen, a national nonprofit education program. NYU students teach classes and perform administrative tasks for the organization, and McLeod hopes to bring even more students on board. Steinhardt sophomore Lauren Fleming, who worked at “My” Right to Learn and served on the chair of communication and public relations, said the overall experience was rewarding.

“From being a ‘My’ Right to Learn team member, I learned just how important mentorship is,” Fleming said. “I hope that ‘My’ Right to Learn grows into a national program. The values that Krystal built the program on and the lessons that are taught should be accessible to all students.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, April 27 print edition. Email Amanda Morris at [email protected].