Scholarship Spotlight: Ashley Robinson

Growing up in Baltimore plus a stint in Japan with her military family during high school, Ashley Robinson had no idea she was a Descendant of Jesuit slaveholding. A little curiosity from her mother led them both to take DNA tests through Ancestry.com, confirming their heritage. That's when Ashley learned that some of her ancestors were sold to plantations in Louisiana and some remained in Maryland. 

"I think about it often, how this country was built on the literal backs of my ancestors," Ashley says.

Ashley learned of the DTRF Scholarship Program at the perfect moment. She and her fiancé had gone back to school at University of Maryland to complete their degrees in computer science a few years before, but with just one year left, she began to worry she might need to take a year off to work and earn money to pay for her last few semesters. 

The money from the DTRF scholarship is exactly the amount she needed, enabling her to finish her degree in fall 2025. Ashley says it will show her three children — ages 7, 2 and 3 months — that they can achieve anything with perseverance and will make her ancestors proud.

"A goal of mine is to start a successful nonprofit for financial literacy in young women such as myself," Ashley says. "I believe this would please my ancestors greatly as their hardships to freedom have paved my way to this very moment."