DeKalb Teen With Sickle Cell Lands $25K Scholarship, Eyes Med School

Charlaye Dennis graduated from Miller Grove High School in DeKalb County this year with 16 college credits already banked, a pre-med biology honors track waiting for her at Georgia State University, and a $25,000 scholarship that she says finally made medical school feel financially possible. She has sickle cell disease, and the frequent hospitalizations that came with it are exactly what pushed her toward the career she now hopes to build in hematology-oncology.

Dennis was selected as one of just 15 students nationwide, chosen from more than 500 applicants, to receive the top-tier Panda Cares Great Futures Scholarship, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. The $25,000 award is part of a $1.34 million national scholarship rollout from Panda Cares and Boys & Girls Clubs of America that is distributing 314 scholarships to club members across the country this year, as detailed by Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Roughly 300 other club members around the country are receiving smaller scholarships in the same program, ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, per FOX 5 Atlanta's reporting.

A Personal Connection to Blood Disorders

Dennis, a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta in DeKalb County, plans to specialize in hematology-oncology so she can treat patients facing blood disorders and cancers, according to CBS News. That specialty choice traces directly back to her own experience with sickle cell pain crises, which have repeatedly landed her in the hospital. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that the scholarship will help Dennis become the first person in her family to attend college, and she said it made medical school something she could actually consider financially.

Her path to this recognition wasn't sudden. Dennis had participated in Boys & Girls Club programs since she was six years old, and in October 2024 she was named Youth of the Year for the East DeKalb Boys & Girls Club, the highest honor the local club bestows on its members, according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta. That local honor came nearly two years before her selection for the national Panda Cares award.

Georgia's Outsized Stake in Sickle Cell Care

Georgia carries one of the largest populations of people living with sickle cell disease in the country, and the state's Sickle Cell Data Collection program has tracked more than 83,000 person-years of related healthcare utilization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, the CDC estimates sickle cell disease affects roughly 100,000 Americans and occurs in about 1 out of every 365 Black or African American births. Hoodline previously reported on a free holistic care center for sickle cell patients that opened in Atlanta in 2024, underscoring the local demand for specialized treatment resources that Dennis's own career path could one day help fill.

Dennis's road to medicine also places her inside a national trend that runs against her. First-generation college students made up just 10.7% of incoming U.S. medical school matriculants in 2025, down from 12.4% in 2021, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. A 13-year study covering U.S. medical student data found that first-generation students faced a 56% higher likelihood of not completing their programs compared to continuing-education peers, even after controlling for income and other demographic factors, per Primary Care Progress.

A Corporate Partnership Years in the Making

The scholarship funding Dennis's freshman year traces back to a long-running partnership between Panda Cares, the philanthropic arm of Panda Restaurant Group, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Since 2020, Panda Cares has contributed more than $62 million to the national organization, funding academic support programs, building 159 dedicated Centers of Hope learning spaces, and sponsoring higher education scholarships like the one Dennis received, according to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, which operates 25 club facilities across 10 metro-area counties and serves roughly 7,000 to 8,000 youth annually, provided information for this story. The organization's academic achievement and college readiness programming is the same track record that carried Dennis from a six-year-old club member to a national Youth of the Year honoree and now a scholarship winner heading into Georgia State's pre-med program this fall.