Ryan Brady ’20 Named a U.S. Presidential Scholar and awarded the Jefferson Scholarship

Hathaway Brown School Senior Ryan Brady received two prestigious honors based on her exceptional academic achievement. 

U.S. Presidential Scholar

Ryan is one of only 161 of the country’s graduating seniors selected as 2020 U.S. Presidential Scholars.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by Executive Order of the President to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished students graduating from high school. The program is one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. Application for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program is by invitation only. 

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presidential Scholars Program is developing plans for a virtual recognition ceremony. 

Hathaway Brown is the alma mater of 11 alumnae who were named U.S. Presidential Scholars: Yasmine Zein ’19, Regan Brady ’17, Lina Ghosh ’17, Isabella Nilsson ’16, Kavya Ravichandran ’16, Alyssa Bryan ’13, Laney Kuenzel ’08, Amy Hollinger ’05, Edith Hines Williams ’00, Caroline Campbell ’98, and Genevieve Mathieson Kilmer ’96.

The Jefferson Scholarship

Ryan also is the recipient of the Jefferson Scholarship, one of the most highly selective merit scholarships in the nation. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia, where she will commence her studies in the fall, selected Ryan as one of 32 recipients.

As a candidate, Ryan underwent a highly competitive selection process. More than 2,000 students were nominated for the scholarship. Ryan first went through a round of regional interviews. After being named one of 119 finalists, she was invited to an extensive three-day interview and selection process conducted remotely by U.Va. alumni and faculty.

In addition to receiving the full cost of attending U.Va. for four years, Jefferson Scholars benefit from a number of enrichment programs sponsored by the foundation, including travel abroad, career networking activities, an outdoor challenge program, and a leadership speaker series.

About Ryan 

During her time at Hathaway Brown School, Ryan has been dedicated to civic engagement and making positive change through the legislative process and voting. She has been a long-time volunteer and board member with the Shaker Heights League of Women Voters which included attending monthly city council meetings, writing observational reports which were published for the community, attending board meetings and public policy forums, and aiding in county-wide voter registration at naturalization ceremonies. Ryan also brought awareness to HB through founding a Junior State of America chapter and organizing events on campus to highlight the democratic process such as Ohio Congressman Casey Weinstein's visit to speak to students about the state-level legislative process.

Additionally, Ryan founded a nonprofit called Hippkids, an organization designed to connect hearing-impaired children and teens worldwide as pen pals. Through this program, she aims to improve educational outcomes among the hearing impaired through promoting literacy development, self-advocacy skills, and teaching children to navigate their disability despite individual circumstances or a lack of local resources. There are approximately 300 children and teens involved in 10 different countries. Her work has gained international recognition.

Ryan has been active with HB's speech and debate team, advancing with her three-person team to the Elite 8 of the International Public Policy debate contest. She is also an accomplished writer, serving as an editor of HB's literary magazine Retrospect; she also received national recognition from Scholastic in the category of memoir, and won the City Club of Cleveland's Free Speech Essay Contest in her junior year.

She has been a service-learning officer at Hathaway Brown, engaging in a host of service activities in school and beyond, including volunteering at Lake Erie Ink, an organization that provides a range of writing experiences to second through 12th-grade students. Ryan has been a leader of GROW (Girls Reaching Others Worldwide), a student-run foundation that reviews and funds grants to nonprofits with a mission to address the needs of children, particularly girls, educational access, hunger, and homelessness.

Ryan is also graduating as a Strnad Fellow, a designation given to students who engage in a year-long creative endeavor. Inspired by an art exhibit at the Federal Reserve Bank featuring propaganda posters from the 1930s, Ryan designed and executed this independent project studying the rhetorical and artistic techniques of the posters that were on display. She used printmaking techniques she learned in her HB art class to make her own posters that address modern issues. She also brought the exhibit to HB this past September for the entire community to see.

In addition to her extensive work surrounding civic engagement, Ryan is graduating as an HB Science Research and Engineering Program scholar, after spending three years serving as a research assistant in a biomedical engineering lab at Case Western Reserve University.

Ryan was recently inducted into the Cum Laude Society, a group composed of the top 20 percent of Hathaway Brown's graduating class. She was also named a National Merit Finalist, has been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, is a Calvin Coolidge Presidential Senator, and a Coca-Cola Scholars finalist. Ryan is an HB Lifer — a Hathaway Brown Student who has attended the all-girls school starting at kindergarten or younger.