At age 17, some kids can barely put together a coherent sentence. Asni Solomon has no such issues. She calmly but passionately speaks in front of a group of 1,200 community leaders, and she certainly doesn’t sound like your average teenager. She’s more like Ken Burns, never missing a beat while narrating one of his TV documentaries.
Solomon could be a poster child for the success of various youth initiatives, several of them golf-related.
The recent Bishop Machebeuf High School graduate displayed some of her considerable talents Thursday when she was a featured speaker at the ACE Scholarships Spring Luncheon, held at the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Denver.
In front of the 1,200 who attended the event — including former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and many prominent members of the Denver metro community — Solomon told her inspiring story, made possible at various junctures by the ACE Scholarships, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course, and the Evans Caddie Scholarship.
The CGA and CWGA own and operate CommonGround, ACE Scholarships is one of their key partners, and the Evans Scholarship is among the associations’ flagship programs as they partner with the Illinois-based Western Golf Association in supporting the Evans Scholars at the University of Colorado.
“This (10-minute speech) was an amazing opportunity because this whole thing was a journey for me and all of it was linked together,” Solomon said after her apperance Thursday.
Solomon’s parents were both born in Ethiopia and 10 years ago Asni was stuck in a low-achieving local public elementary school in Montbello. “The pace of learning was quite slow for me,” she explained. “I was going through the motions at school, I wasn’t excited, and I was becoming bored.”
But thanks in part to partial scholarships from ACE over the last nine years, Solomon was able to attend high-quality private schools — in her case, Stanley British Primary School and Bishop Machebeuf. Denver-based ACE provides low-income families with school choice through financial scholarships, helping close the gap betweens the “haves” and “have nots” of society. Since 2000, ACE has awarded more than 9,000 scholarships, worth upwards of $17.8 million.
Then through caddying at the Solich Academy at CommonGround, Solomon qualified for — and received — the full tuition and housing Evans Scholarship at CU. She and Andrea Pickford, who caddies at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, are the first African-American women who have been awarded Evans Scholarships at CU.
“This is why we support ACE,” said business entrepreneur and philanthropist George Solich, a former Evans Scholar who introduced Solomon at the ACE luncheon. “ACE is truly a change agent for students like (Asni). This incredible young lady is the epitome of how quality education, paired with opportunities and support, can have a life-changing impact on an individual’s future.”
Solich noted that the Solich Academy and the ACE Scholarships have similar goals: to give opportunities to deserving kids from low-income families, helping them to learn important character-building values in the process.
Solomon started her speech on Thursday in catchy fashion, noting “My name is Asni Solomon, I’m an ACE Scholar, and I’m going to change the world.”
Keynote speaker Geoffrey Canada, a longtime and provocative advocate for education reform, marveled at Solomon’s speech.
“Don’t you think that young lady is going to change the world?” he said.
Solomon owned a 4.0 high school grade-point average while taking honors and advanced-placement classes, and she was a member of the National Honor Society.
But one indication that she isn’t your average 17-year-old is that seven years ago — at the age of 10 — she helped start an organization called the Circle of Friends Network, which raises money to support 20 orphans in Ethiopia with basic education, food and school uniforms.
“There’s an Ethiopian proverb that says, ‘He who learns, teaches,'” she said. “To me that means, if you are fortunate enough to receive a great education, you must share in that good fortune and support others so that they can get that same chance. That’s the true power of an education, and that’s the impact that ACE has had on me.”
Not surprisingly, Solomon left the stage to a standing ovation.
It’s been quite a run for Solomon in the last year. Besides giving the speech Thursday to a crowd of 1,200, she spoke at last September’s first “graduation” ceremony for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, and she earned the Evans Scholarship over the winter.
“It’s (all) very special,” she said. “It’s something I’m going to remember. … I’m thankful.”
And a significant part of that thanks goes to golf-related activities that have opened doors for Solomon.
“Golf has helped get me where I am today,” she said. “Before I started caddying, I did not know anything about golf. It was a new experience for me. But the game of golf changed my life. Now I’m going to college on a full-ride scholarship because of this game. It’s helped me learn about hard work and how to interact with professionals.”
