Nassar Omar recalls his mother as “the hardest working person I knew;” she was passionate in her efforts to close the racial achievement gap in the local school. She died in 2009 while Nassar was a student at Carrboro High. To honor her legacy, Nassar, now a financial research analyst in Chicago, created a scholarship recognizing the academic achievements of minority students. He notified the winner of first annual Lynette Omar scholarship on Mother’s Day. Said Nassar, “I am going to enjoy having the opportunity to reflect on my mother every year through the lens of a student at Carrboro.”
Tendo Nakasenge, the inaugural recipient of the award, moved to the United States from Uganda at age three. She learned English by watching public television. Tendo wanted to be a surgeon until she decided “the blood and the cutting into people was too much for me.” A people lover, she went to a summer leadership conference at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health where she realized, “Oh! That’s where I’m heading.” Tendo now hopes to work at the United Nations or the Center for Disease Control.
