‘Why My Scholarship Matters’: D’Schon Simmons ’27
Photo by Steve Freeman
“There are so many resources on campus here to assist students that I just was not expecting — whether it’s mentorship, whether it’s financial assistance, whether it’s one-on-one counseling.” — D’Schon Simmons ’27
First-generation college student D’Schon Simmons knows that achieving big dreams requires persistence. His journey to Princeton began in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he took classes at his local community college while in high school so he could earn an associate’s degree alongside his diploma. He wanted to attend a top university, and he had expected to pay back college loans for years to do so.
“Affordability was always something like a monster that was hiding in the closet,” he said. “When I realized that Princeton had such a robust assistance program and that attending wouldn’t risk being in debt, it was a dream come true, truly.”
Now president of his Princeton class and a residential college adviser at Mathey College, Simmons plans to attend law school and go into public service after graduation. His passion for criminal justice reform has taken him from studying in Greece to working with the United Nations in Geneva.
“Not every university gets invited to work at the U.N. and not every student gets to work with professors who have such expertise,” Simmons said. “Studying abroad was literally priceless.”
