Rocky roads smoothed out

Imagine worrying that you might never go to college and having no clue how you would pay for it if you got there.

Then imagine getting a blank check for four years at any university in the country.

For Areej Hassan of Northeast Philadelphia and Brittany Blythe of Chester, that's exactly what happened. From rocky beginnings, the two - by determination and thanks to the generosity of a stranger - have suddenly secured their futures.

They are the two local winners of the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship - a new award given to five students nationwide who "in the face of difficult circumstances, demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and noble character."

Those things, the two have in spades.

Gail Levin, executive director of the Annenberg Foundation, feels lucky to have found them.

"They're both outstanding young people with qualities that suggest inner strength and nobility of character," Levin said. "Everyone around them seems to be better for having known them."

Brittany Blythe was born into a large, impoverished family, and had a genetic condition that left her without thumbs or shinbones. Muscle and flesh dangled below her knees.

When she was just 2, her legs were amputated at the knee. Her mother didn't want Brittany to need a wheelchair, and the girl conquered learning to walk atop painful prosthetic legs.

Feeling sorry for herself is not something Blythe does. Still, she always has had a secret desire: running legs, separate from the regular prostheses she uses when she's not maneuvering around easily on her knees.

"I've wanted them since I was little, when I saw them on TV," Blythe said. "I've always wanted to run."

But there was little time to worry about that. One of six children, Blythe helped raise her three younger siblings until two years ago, when her mother died and the family was split up.

Though she had her mother only a short time, it was long enough for her to impress upon Blythe that education was the ticket out of a hard life.

Determination and a sunny disposition are her hallmarks. Blythe, 18, is a cheerleader, a flag twirler, a model, and is learning to be an actress.

Blythe can't do the jumps or the same dance moves as the other girls, but it doesn't bother her. She gets to interpret routines her way.

"Oh, my gosh, I'm so busy," she said, her tone suggesting she'd have it no other way.

Inquirer readers met Blythe last year, when she was highlighted as an excellent student at the start of her junior year. The Annenberg people hand-picked her after reading her story. Reader's Digest also has profiled her, prompting a flood of mail from people around the country.

Blythe now lives in Chester with her grandmother, but an exception was made to allow her to remain at Strath Haven High School in Wallingford, where she earns A's and B's.

"From her first day at Strath Haven High School, she embraced everything the school had to offer," Michael Barr, a teacher who has known her for six years, wrote about Blythe in her application for the scholarship. "She is at school from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. almost daily."

Barr marvels at the young woman who never grows bitter or disappointed, who sees opportunity everywhere.

"We are all convinced a young person like her comes around only once in a lifetime," he said.

Blythe's ambitions are sky-high: She wants to be a lawyer, a teacher and a counselor. She enjoyed a summer program at Penn State and thinks she might want to attend the college.

She was flabbergasted by the scholarship - at first.

"I don't feel like it's a reward," she said. "It proves to me that no matter what, I'm going to go forward. It proves that there are always going to be people helping me."

Before the Annenberg, Blythe thought she would have to stay in Chester with limited college options. Now she's excited about a wide-open future and being the first in her family to go to college.

"I can go anywhere," Blythe said. "I can go anywhere I want."

The latest development in her life?

"My doctor says I'm getting my new running legs in December," she said.

Just in time to race toward her future.

Areej Hassan scored zeroes on every test in fourth grade. Classmates mocked her - a 9-year-old from a third-world country who spoke no English.

Her parents fled Sudan for Saudi Arabia when she was days old, looking for a more stable life for their young family. They moved again, to Philadelphia, when she was 9.

Her father was a doctor, but he willingly gave up that career to move to a place where his children could be anything they wanted. His license did not transfer to the United States, so he works as a counselor for a private company.

Hassan's mother, who never finished high school, is a carrier for The Inquirer. She hopes her four children someday can live lives without limits.

"I feel like I owe this to them," said Hassan, 16, a serious young woman whose shyness gives way to a brilliant, dimpled smile when she talks about her family.

Hassan began school without a word of English and found no sympathy from frustrated classmates and teachers.

"It was really hard for me," she said. "I said, 'I'm not going to ever learn English.' "

But she always has been determined, and her parents' sacrifices motivated her. By seventh grade, she had risen to the top of the class.

These days, she's a senior at Northeast High, where she earns straight A's and takes the toughest course load her school offers. She's a member of the select International Baccalaureate program who juggles multiple activities and takes classes at Manor College.

Free time is rare, but she uses it reading fiction and chatting with her 13-year-old sister. TV's not really on her radar screen. When her mother offered a television for her room, the teen didn't bite.

"I told my mom to keep it out," Hassan said. "I need to concentrate on my schoolwork."

Paying for college was a constant worry. She thought about state schools. She thought about loans.

When her mentors at Philadelphia Futures - a program that helps inner-city students get to college - submitted her name to the Annenberg program, Hassan never dreamed she'd win the prize - which includes tuition, room and board, a computer, money for books, and two trips home a year.

When she won, her parents couldn't stop smiling. They phoned all their family in Sudan. Her friends screamed.

Having won the scholarship, Hassan feels a heavier sense of responsibility. She also is amazed that the Annenberg is making a new kind of college search - Harvard, Penn, Bryn Mawr - possible for her.

"I think she's a really a kind person to do this for someone she doesn't know," she said of Annenberg, the former U.S. chief of protocol and widow of the publisher and philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg.

She's got big plans for making Leonore Annenberg - and her family - proud.

She'd like to be a doctor, like her father. She knows people are remembered for their deeds, and she thinks she's got big ones in her.

"I want to go back and help my people, help Sudan," Hassan said. "They're not getting enough food or medicine or justice. Doctors walk over dead bodies in hospitals."

Those who know her don't doubt for a minute that's just where she's headed.

"Areej," said Brad Jacobson, who works closely with her at Philadelphia Futures, "is a ray of promising light in the midst of the difficult educational and economic environments that surround her."