The 2025 Dorna Titus Future Leaders Scholarship

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The Scholarship is for College and Trade School bound graduating 

New York State High School Seniors, 

who have experienced and overcome adversity, 

while reaching for and achieving great scholarly 

and societal accomplishments, 

while also giving back.

Dorna Elaine Titus, an immigrant from Panama, came to the United States to start a family and create a better life. She studied, became an American Citizen, and began working as an administrative assistant in the social services department of Interfaith Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. She married and settled in the Jamaica, Queens area of New York.

Dorna Elaine Titus was blessed with having two children, Dr. Alfred S. Titus, Jr. and Serina Elaine Titus, who she gave her all to, instilling strong educational, and moral values while focusing on the importance of staying out of the streets and helping others. In addition to her beliefs at home and although she did not have a college education, she reinforced the significance of education. From the beginning, she ensured that her children attended private schools that reflected her strong moral standards. Dorna spent hours doing homework and studying with her children on a daily basis. She helped others by opening her home to family members in need of a place to live while establishing themselves in the United States.

While starting a family with her husband, Alfred S. Titus, Sr., they purchased their first home and Dorna started her career, making her way into the social services department and realizing her dream of helping others. She became known as the woman who could find a way to help anyone. At home, she would often discuss some of the cases that detailed the unfortunate situautions families found themelves in as she reminded my sister and I that there are hungry and less fortunate people in the world. She would often take our left-over dinners into the homeless who were around the hospital where she worked, providing a hot meal to families in need.

Dorna Titus passed away at the young age of 48. 

Her lessons and values carry on through her children and grandchildren who are all achieving great successes educationally and in their careers, 

while giving back through multiple efforts. 

Today, through the Dorna Titus Future Leaders Scholarship,

 her legacy of helping others lives on.

Despite the challanges faced during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 Dorna Titus Future Leaders Scholarship was a success!  Thanks to generous donations, two (2) deserving High School Seniors were carefully selected as winners based on their grades, achievements, and the essays written that describe the adversity they overcame.  The winners are enrolled at American University in Washington D.C. and Barnard College in New York City, for the Fall 2020 semester. A small outdoor acceptance lunch was held for the winners and their families, where the awards were presented (pictures below). 

The 2023 Scholarship was also a success! Through several fundraisers, including a 2022 Scholarship Gala, two (2) ambitious High School Seniors were carefully selected  based on their grades, achievements, and the essays written describing the adversity they overcame. For the Fall 2023 semester, the awardees are majoring in Computer Science at Duke University and Biochemistry at Stony Brook University (pictures below).  

Click the Link Below to Learn More About the Scholarship and to Apply