CSULB senior Tanisha Washington, a management information systems and applications development major who once experienced homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles, received a $3,000 scholarship last week for her extraordinary educational achievements. Washington is scheduled to receive a Bachelor's Degree next Spring, and plans to enter the business world before returning for her Master's. She is this year's recipient of the William R. Hearst/CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement, which is given to one student at each of the CSU system's 23 campuses.

In a press release, Washington says she will spend the scholarship on a badly-needed laptop and printer, and also transportation to and from campus every day. She holds a 3.9 GPA and is a member of several esteemed honors organizations, and hopes to one day start a business based on a school project she directed that designed shoes out of recycled plastic bags.

The purpose of the project was to reduce the environmental effects of production and provide for children in need; children like Washington herself, whose family was so deeply hurt by her father's death that they were forced into homelessness for a time. Washington, her two siblings and her disabled mother briefly lived on Los Angeles' infamously tough Skid Row in 2003.

“Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that I have come so far in my educational journey,” said Washington, in a CSULB press release. “I won a scholarship and internship offer from Google, took first place in an innovation challenge, and received one of the greatest recognitions a student can get by being named a William R. Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Outstanding Achievement scholar. It is all so unreal! The possibilities for the future truly are endless. CSULB has given me the confidence that I can accomplish anything.”

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