Helping others just feels good, Rachael Georges ‘20 says. She’s the type of person that, if she hit the lottery, she’d find ways to give it back to the community first instead of spending it on luxury items for herself.

When she stepped foot on the Manor College campus in 2017, she found ways to get involved in her new surroundings, even though she took two busses and the subway just to get to the institution. Between the Early Childhood Education Club and the Rotaract, she found most of her time spent on helping families on Christmas, baking treats for McDonald House families or raking leaves and installing smoke detectors for the elderly.

“I’ve always liked doing stuff for the community,” Georges said. “It just warms your heart when you make somebody smile because of something that you did.”

The desire to help others stems from the company you keep, Georges says. For her, it started with her foster parents — a couple who fostered 41 children over the years and adopted four of them. Georges’ biological mother, who she now lives with in Philadelphia, finds her own time to serve as a nurse at a local hospital.

“With people like that with hearts so big, I could do nothing more than to want to be something like them,” Georges says. “My parents molded me to give and not expect anything back, and that’s how I am.”

In 2018, Georges was the one on the receiving end of some help. While navigating a tricky financial situation, she received the Crosby Service Leadership Scholarship. It was the boost she needed to help Georges graduate with her Associates’ Degree in Early Childhood Education.

At the end of the day, scholarships like the one she received are vital to Georges’ core mission — helping others so that “we can rise together.”

“I never liked just looking at someone who is less fortunate,” Georges said. “There’s a lot that the scholarships can do for people. There are people who are less fortunate and are putting in the work to be better. Being rewarded with one, it’s a feeling I think everyone should experience.”