How do you honor someone you never really knew? 

That’s a question my brother, Ronjan, and I have been pondering for a lot of our lives.  Manjie, my parents’ first child, was born with Down Syndrome and three holes in her heart, making her very short four years of life miraculous in every way. 

My brother was just a toddler when she passed, and I was not even a blimp on the sonogram.  Growing up with her memory has always seemed so normal; but as we grew older, we started wondering what she would have been doing now. We wanted to do something to honor her and keep her relevant in our lives. Since Manjie didn’t have the opportunity to fulfill whatever dreams she might have had, we knew the best way to honor her was to help create opportunities for others.

Thus, the Manjie Sikdar Scholarship was born.

Finding the right partnership

The scholarship idea actually remained just a concept for quite some time. However in 2010 I became a ProInspire Fellow and made a major career change into education. I had suddenly entered into the perfect world for discovering potential partnerships with schools.  We were in search of a school that would provide us with a strong applicant pool of students who were driven, talented, and – most importantly – in need of financial support.

Last year, after hitting many dead ends, I finally found the school here in DC: Thurgood Marshall Academy in SE.  It’s an amazing program. The students are incredibly driven, and the school has achieved 100% college acceptance of seniors.  We fell in love with everything they do to ensure that each class is successful during high school and throughout their college years, and knew we wanted to help one of these students along their journey.

Focusing on performing arts

The Manjie Sikdar Scholarship is focused on a background in performing arts.  My brother Ronjan is an exceptionally gifted musician, having started piano at the age of 3 and violin shortly thereafter.  He has performed at Carnegie Hall twice and recorded multiple songs and now works as the Director of e-Commerce at Nielsen.  While his talent didn’t become any part of his professional career, it definitely has had its impact. 

Similarly, I’m a pianist, cellist, and a singer, but I am going to law school in the fall.  My brother and I truly believe that while we did not pursue music in our careers it has been the driving force in shaping who we are.  This commitment to the arts is the cornerstone of the Scholarship, regardless of what the scholarship recipients decide to pursue in school.

The hardest part: making the selection

We recently completed the application review process, which was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Each applicant had to submit two essays, a letter of recommendation, and an audition tape.  Not only were they all incredibly gifted performers, but they were also excellent students.

As a part of the process I met with them for in-person interviews. While I originally this would make the decision easier, I was wrong.  It made it ten times harder.  They were even more impressive in person as they were on paper, and I felt a connection to each one of them in completely different ways.   

The final decision

After an incredibly grueling and emotionally taxing couple of weeks, we finally chose our inaugural winner of The Manjie Sikdar Scholarship: Marquise Williams! 

Marquise Williams is a senior at TMA, a lyricist, dancer, and strong leader at school and in his community.  He will be attending Columbia College in Chicago this fall to pursue audio production.  He has had a difficult ride through life and has looked to music to make his struggles productive.  When others might have turned to distractions, he focused on making his academics stronger so he could learn how to make it the “right way.”  He has put his education first and has made a strong commitment to getting his college degree, all the while continuing to make music and lead his peers in dance. He inspires us, and we are pleased to be able to support him in this way.

We’re so excited to see what he does in the next four years and far beyond. I like to think that Manjie would be really proud of Marquise’s effort and journey.  In fact, I believe she’d be honored. 

For more info, please visit: www.manjie.org or www.facebook.com/manjiesikdar.