RIT Students Receive Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Endowed Scholarships |
Congratulations to Angelina Myles and Achol Aroman. Both received the 2026 Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Endowed Scholarship. The award is named in honor of Rev. Jordan who served as the first chairperson of RIT’s President’s Commission on Pluralism and Inclusion and worked to create a welcoming campus community in the 1990’s. His wife, Cassandra Jordan created an endowment that provides scholarships to students who model his legacy.
Angelina Myles has great time management skills! She is a fourth-year electrical engineering student. In addition to maintaining a strong academic record, and getting hands-on experience through co-ops, Myles also finds time to use her leadership skills through various extracurricular activities on campus. She believes engagement begins when individuals feel seen, informed and invited to participate.
“Early in my career at RIT, I recognized that opportunities and engagement are not created by simply offering resources to students. They exist when leaders intentionally remove barriers between students and those resources. As a Freshman Representative and later President of Unity House, I learned the importance of transparency in leadership. I worked to communicate clearly with house members about decisions, planning processes, and opportunities for involvement so students felt ownership over their community rather than distance from it. Through organizing large-scale events such as Soul Food Sunday or For the Culture Night, I helped create spaces where students could celebrate identity while building connections across campus communities.”
Her leadership skills are noted campus-wide. In support of her nomination for this scholarship, one person wrote” Angelina has demonstrated strong and consistent leadership since arriving at RIT.”
She is a member of Women of Women of Character, Honor and Ambition (WOCHA), a resident advisor, a welcome center attendant and serves as President of the RIT chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). She says one of the most significant challenges she identified was many students lacked access to STEM opportunities outside the classroom.
She says, “Despite the strong academic programs RIT offers, students often struggled to participate due to their demanding course schedules, a sense of imposter syndrome in technical spaces or believing they lacked sufficient prior experience. These barriers discouraged involvement, especially from newer students and those of underrepresented backgrounds.”
Myles addressed this by intentionally redesigning NSBE programming to lower entry barriers and create welcoming learning environments. Pathways to Success in collaboration with the SHED Markerspace and RIT Career Services, allowed students to learn how to access campus resources that support academic and professional development.
Myles believes leadership is most impactful when it creates sustainable change. For example, one initiative she took on recently allowed more RIT NSBE students to attend the national convention this past March.
“Last year our chapter took 25 students, costing a total of about $30,000. Recognizing financial accessibility as a major barrier, I dedicated significant time to organizing budgeting strategies and strengthening fundraising efforts. As a result, we nearly doubled participation to 45 students while only increasing total cost to about $33,000. This achievement significantly reduced the per-student cost and granted many more students access to national networking, career opportunities and professional development.”
Leading by example, Myles is investing in developing the next generation of student leaders.
A good leader has empathy for others. That’s something Achol Aroman says she learned this year when her leadership skills were tested in an unexpected way. It became personal.
Aroman is a third-year applied mathematics major with a minor in global public health and a communication immersion. Her academics are solid and she is busy. She uses her leadership skills on a daily basis, whether it is with student organizations or her work-study employment which includes serving as a Welcome Center Attendant and as a student staff assistant in Campus Life. She is also a new student orientation coordinator, managing ten other assistants and working with 40 student organizations to design programs to welcome incoming students to RIT.
She didn’t waste any time becoming active when she first came to RIT. She was a Freshman Representative for Unity House, and the following year she was elected President and centered her leadership on maintaining high personal standards: academically, ethically, and professionally, while intentionally expanding their reach.
“The most impactful initiative of my presidency was coordinating For the Culture Night x Night Market, a historic collaborative event between Unity House and the Asian Culture Society. This partnership had never been done before and intentionally expanded the borders of collaboration between cultural organizations at RIT. By bringing together performances, food, and tabling opportunities that celebrated multiple cultures in one unified space, we demonstrated that community-building does not have be isolated.”
She now serves as Unity House Student Advisor and as treasurer for the College of Science ALANA organization, overseeing budgets and financial planning to ensure successful programming and fundraising.
But this academic year she was forced to use her leadership skills to address an unexpected challenge. It was a personal, financial challenge. Through weeks of uncertainty, she maintained her academics and sought solutions. It wasn’t working and she even enrolled at another university for this spring 2026 term. She would have to leave RIT. At the very last minute, financial help arrived, but she says this was a life-changing lesson.
“This challenge reshaped my understanding of leadership. I learned that advocacy includes advocating for yourself. I learned that resilience is built through action, not silence. Most importantly, I discovered who my true advocates and cheerleaders are. Advisors who took my calls, supervisors who encouraged me to persist, and peers who reminded me of my worth showed me that community is not transactional, it is transformational. Even when my path seemed to be changing directions, they were committed to equipping me with the tools to succeed. Their belief in me strengthened my belief in myself.”
Some of those advisors and “cheerleaders” nominated her for this award.
Aroman says she now leads with deeper empathy and intention and she’s more proactive in connecting students to resources and talks freely about financial hardship with others.
“My journey at RIT has tested me, refined me, and strengthened me. I am proud to say that through every challenge, I did not allow my crown to fall. Instead, I chose to lead, grounded in service, sustained by community, and committed to moving the world forward.”