Elijah Soumahoro (MaST Community Charter, Philadelphia) will study Liberal Arts at Manor College.

Manor College’s website describes the Liberal Arts degree as a “multi-dimensional learning environment that prepares students for their next steps in life and education.” It’s a degree program where students gain confidence in their academics, grasp the transition to college and lay the foundation for their future. 

Elijah Soumahoro enters Manor College’s Liberal Arts program this Fall with an open mind and a blank slate. The degree path is a chance for him to truly discover what his future holds. 

Soumahoro first discovered Manor College through a few billboards along I-95 and saw the institution’s slogan “You Belong Here” on SEPTA buses that drove near his home in the Juniata section of Philadelphia. 

“The ‘You Belong Here’ just stuck with me,” Soumahoro said. “I just like how the school represented itself. Manor says they are community-oriented and they’ve backed it up.”

He views college as a chance not only to grow, but to take advantage of the opportunities and sacrifices his parents made to him. His father, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, worked two jobs to keep the family financially stable. His mother worked at a bank and helped to raise Soumahoro. They battled their own struggles and sacrifices, but found ways to provide growth experiences for him. 

It’s the lessons he’s learned from his parents that Soumahoro values the most and that consistently drive him to be the best version of himself that he can be. 

“They taught me how to have fortitude and perseverance,” Soumahoro said. “My Dad came to the US in the 1990s and he couldn’t speak proper English and had no friends or family to back him up. My mom had to put in the work, all to set up this opportunity for me to go to school. I want to make them proud.”

Soumahoro describes himself as a bit of an introvert – sometimes standing on the sidelines to watch and observe before he jumps into an activity. He spends his time playing guitar as a hobby, practicing Tae Kwon Do, or strolling around Philadelphia with a friend who is a landscape photographer. 

At Manor, he’s eager to begin finding his calling in life. 

“It’s a chance to settle down and decide what I want to choose as a career path,” Soumahoro said. “This really is a blank slate. I don’t want to make my college experience a waste of time. I want to make the most of it.”