Creative and Performing Arts
Student Experience
Scholarships
Weinberg College
School of Communication
Building Community, Connections, and a Career Path
Cydney Hope Brown ’26, Carlyon Scholar
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Gifts for scholarships and related support enable students like Cydney Hope Brown ’26, a Carlyon Scholar, to thrive at Northwestern. As she pursues her major in communication studies and minor in Black studies, she says, “my scholarship has helped me to really focus on my academics.”
Brown began her Northwestern journey attending the Summer Academic Workshop (SAW), a free, three-week program before the start of classes that builds community and prepares incoming students for academic success. As a first-year student she participated in Compass, a peer mentoring program that connects first-generation and/or lower-income students.
In addition, through the Beacon Scholars program, Brown has had access to four years of advising, community-building opportunities, workshops, and programming. Participants like Brown are chosen for their leadership capacity, intellectual potential, resilience, and commitment to their communities.
“Beacon Scholars has definitely helped me to get the resources I need on campus, connect with other students, and feel a sense of belonging,” Brown says. She also appreciates that the program provides students with free “fuel kits” during exams, which have helped her keep her dorm-room fridge stocked with snacks.
With support from these programs, Brown has excelled, both in her studies and outside the classroom. In 2025, she received the Communication Studies Departmental Excellence Award for Undergraduate Students, and she is a member of Lambda Pi Eta, an honor society that recognizes outstanding academic achievements in the field of communications. She is interested in communications and marketing—and has already secured a job after graduation as a communications analyst for Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brown also is an award-winning poet who served as the youth poet laureate in her native city of Philadelphia. She was named the 2023 youth poet laureate for the Northeast region of the United States and was a finalist for national laureate. Hoping to animate the poetry scene at Northwestern, Brown became president of the Black Poetry Society—a group that has seen growing interest among students and has brought local Chicago poets to campus. Her commitment to bringing students together led to her selection by the undergraduate student body as one of two 2025 Homecoming Wildcats.
To explore future career paths, Brown worked during her sophomore year as an intern with iHeartMedia, an opportunity created in partnership with the School of Communication. Three mornings a week, as a programming and public affairs producer intern at the company’s Chicago office, she worked with radio personalities, prepared for on-air interviews, and researched local issues. Early hours aside, she says, “It’s been a great opportunity. I’ve been really grateful to have an internship that is paid and also allows me to get academic credit.”
Brown is also grateful for small, everyday sources of support. Talking to a therapist through Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has helped her manage stress, and the University’s emergency aid funds have helped her cover copays for services. “My mental health is something I really want to prioritize,” she says.
Brown always knew she wanted to join clubs, organize programming, and serve as a mentor to students with backgrounds similar to her own, she says, “because the community has done so much for me.” After mentoring SAW students in 2023, she returned to the summer program in 2024 in a new role as a counselor coordinator.
“It’s been great to have [my scholarship and all of this support],” she says. “To the donors who give, I would like to say thank you so much.”