September 2021 – Fitchburg High School in Massachusetts presented 17-year-old graduate Verda Tetteh with its 2021 General Excellence Award, a $40,000 scholarship that provides $10,000 annually for up to four years of education, and is not restricted to the recipient’s use for tuition alone.
Since Tetteh will be attending Harvard University in the fall on a prestigious state scholarship, she turned down the additional prize and asked her high school to award it to a fellow student in need.
As a child Tetteh immigrated to America with her mother from Ghana. Citing her Christian faith and her mother’s example of hard work and dedication, Tetteh said, “I am so very grateful for this [award], but I also know that I am not the one who needs this the most. … God has gotten me this far, and He will take me the rest of the way.”
