NAACP honors scholarship recipients at Juneteenth celebration

At the sixth annual local Juneteenth celebration hosted by the Lebanon County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the organization honored student recipients of the 2026 Diversity Scholarships.

Only one of the three recipients of the $1,000 scholarship was present, recent Cedar Crest High School graduate Abena Obuobisa. Obuobisa, recently honored as Cedar Crest High School Student of the Year, plans to major in biomedical engineering pre-med at Vanderbilt University.

Education Committee chair Pat Steely explained that the branch only planned to distribute two scholarships this year, but the rubric-scored results created a tie for second place between Anna Spangler Lim of Annville-Cleona High School and Tracy Lin of Palmyra High School. Rather than choose between the students, Steely said, they decided to give out a third scholarship this year.

“It’s important for our local students to know that we see them and that they’re welcomed, and we want their voices heard,” said Steely. “I think it’s important to promote diversity, especially in the current political climate.”

Applicants were asked to write a submit an essay describing “what [they] have learned from and contributed to a diverse community [they] belong to” alongside a letter of recommendation. Obuobisa explained that she wrote about her experience volunteering with her church community for its food bank.

“Church is the only place where I see people who look at me because at school, in the senior class, I was one of three Black people,” said Obuobisa. “I talked about how I had to embrace my own diversity and break the stereotype of loud, rude, uneducated black people.”

In addition to volunteering at her church, class president Obuobisa said, she also held leadership positions in multiple school clubs, tutored younger students, and volunteered at library storytime events for younger kids once a month.

In the future, Obuobisa said, she sees herself working in pediatric oncology or pediatric emergency medicine and research. She has always enjoyed working with kids, she said, and refined her love for science into an interest in medicine as she got older.

“I rarely see female Black doctors,” said Obuobisa on the importance of diversity in the medical field. “It was only when I went to Penn State science surgery program where I met three female Black doctors. It was nice to see that people who look like me can also succeed.”

Steely said that checks to recipients were given at their schools’ end-of-year award ceremonies. The funds are meant to go toward college incidental costs, like textbooks. Recipients also receive student memberships to the NAACP.

Steely said she feels interactions with students are important for the NAACP, noting that many students are unfamiliar with the organization when they meet her.

“I think it’s very important because, surprisingly enough, even students of color don’t have the full history of understanding what the NAACP is,” she said. “We were formed in 1909 in response to the injustices being done to people of color, the lynchings, etc. We’ve met students of color that, when we talk about the NAACP, they’d just shake their heads; it wasn’t taught in their schools, their families didn’t teach them. I think it’s important that we continue that legacy today, we’re the largest civil rights organization in the USA.”

The ceremony honoring scholarship recipients was the first event of the day at the Juneteenth event Saturday.

“Congratulations to our young lady right here with the scholarship,” said Jerry Mitchell of the Pennsylvania Treasury Department. “We’re super proud of you, because the world needs your leadership; the world needs you and you’re the one who’s gonna lead this world. Your generation’s going to help lead this world into the future.”

The Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. Throughout the country, communities come together to celebrate Black culture and history.

Saturday’s activities included a performance from the York Temple Guard, an African drumming workshop, and a walk through Black history with stops representing each decade.

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