kenan james memorial scholarship
a scholarship for east paulding high school students
About
Kenan James graduated from East Paulding High School in 2015. At East Paulding, Kenan was involved in several clubs, graduated in the Top 10 of his class, and was beloved by all, even being crowned Prom King his senior year.Kenan experienced and accomplished a great deal after his time at East Paulding. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Computer Science in 2019. When Kenan wasn’t learning new coding languages he was learning Chinese, eventually spending several months in Shanghai, China for an internship. Throughout his time at Georgia Tech, Kenan also interned at Salesforce, Visa and The Home Depot in San Francisco, Austin and Atlanta.Upon graduating, Kenan moved to San Francisco where he worked as a Software Engineer for Google until 2023. Kenan’s professional success was in part due to his fantastic intellect, to be sure, but it was at least equally in part due to his incredible work ethic and magnetic personality.To anyone who knew him, Kenan was one of the most ambitious and hardest working people they knew. Kenan faced numerous personal and health challenges but continually overcame, always with a smile. Most notably, he had a magnetic personality with an uncanny ability to make everyone around him feel like the most important person in the room. These are the lessons that Kenan would have passed on to future East Paulding students.The Kenan James Memorial Scholarship awards scholarships to two graduating East Paulding High School seniors furthering their education.The scholarship was started as a way to honor Kenan. But more importantly, it was started to serve as a reminder to us all to view this life as one of endless opportunity, to view every challenge as one to overcome and to treat every relationship as a chance to brighten someone’s day. That’s the way Kenan lived his life, and the way that we should all strive to live ours.
The Kenan James Memorial Scholarship is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt charitable organization registered in the United States (EIN 93-3079448).
Criteria & Application
To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must:
Be a graduating senior from East Paulding High School
Have been accepted to and planning to attend a 4-year undergraduate university
The application requires:
Background & contact information
Official or unofficial high school transcript
Short response to the question: Describe the personal interaction - with another student, teacher, coach or community member - you are most proud of during your time at East Paulding. (250 words maximum)
Short response to the question: What do you plan to study at your next level of education and why? (250 words maximum)
Additional document submission (optional): If you have any piece of work - essay, art, video, etc. - that you are proud of or believe demonstrates a unique interest or perspective, you are welcome to submit it with the application.
Applications for the 2025 award are not yet available. Applications will open in January 2025.
Recipients
Congratulations to our 2024 recipients!
Dresden Jolly is attending the University of Georgia to study economics.
Blake Fillingame is pursuing an engineering degree at Georgia Tech.
We look forward to welcoming an additional group of Scholarship recipients in May 2025.
Donate
This scholarship is run and primarily funded by a group of Kenan's friends. If you would like to donate to help ensure that Kenan's story continues to be told, you can do so via the link below. Any support is greatly appreciated. 100% of all donations are paid out to scholarship recipients.
If you have any questions or prefer to give via another method (cash, check, etc.), please reach out to kj.mem.scholarship@gmail.com
The Kenan James Memorial Scholarship is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt charitable organization registered in the United States (EIN 93-3079448).
Contact
If you have any questions regarding the scholarship, applying, donating or any other matters, please reach out to: