When Yasmine Arrington Brooks ’15 learned she had been selected as a 2025 L’Oréal Paris Woman of Worth, she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
When Yasmine Arrington Brooks ’15 learned she had been selected as a 2025 L’Oréal Paris Woman of Worth, she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
“I was in complete shock,” she said. “Elated, ecstatic, excited; it’s a big deal. Especially for girls and women, we’ve all had at least one L’Oréal Paris product in our purses or bathrooms. I grew up watching their commercials. Their tagline is ‘Because You’re Worth It.’ For a brand like that to see my worth, and the worth of ScholarCHIPS, means so much.”
The recognition follows her recent honor as a Top 10 CNN Hero in 2023, another milestone in the journey that began when she founded ScholarCHIPS, a nonprofit providing college scholarships and community support for students with incarcerated parents. Over the past year, her organization has undergone its most significant transformation yet.
After CNN Heroes aired, ScholarCHIPS expanded its eligibility beyond the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia region and began accepting applications from students across the United States. The results were immediate, as more than 120 applications from students nationwide, many of whom learned about the program because of a new partnership with Securus Technologies. The company’s 500,000+ tablets in jails and prisons helped spread the word to incarcerated parents, who then contacted their children to encourage them to apply.
“What we saw was incredible,” Arrington Brooks said. “That year, we welcomed our largest cohort of 24 students. We’re now serving 45 scholars. Since 2012, ScholarCHIPS has awarded over $600,000 in scholarships to more than 120 students, and we’ve had 54 graduates. Opening our doors to the country has been amazing, and it’s only the beginning.”
The heart of ScholarCHIPS has always been its community. Alumni return to mentor new scholars. Students bond through karaoke nights, game nights, advocacy trips and shared celebrations. Last year, she took several scholars and alumni to Arizona State University for the National Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference, where she moderated a panel featuring ScholarCHIPS students sharing their experiences.
“It’s a community where we uplift one another,” she said. “We laugh together, we cry together, we grow together. So many friendships have formed here. So many mentorships. I want to replicate this on college campuses across the country.”
Among the many students who remind her why the work matters is Temya Jackson, a biomedical engineering student from Arizona who has excelled academically while supporting her family. ScholarCHIPS has provided her with mentorship, technology support and a place to feel understood and encouraged.
“Temya is brilliant,” she said. “A straight-A student doing advanced research. She feels seen here. She feels celebrated. And now she’s working toward becoming a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, a program I’m also an alum of. That’s what ScholarCHIPS does.”
Arrington Brooks’ commitment to her organization is deeply tied to her own lived experiences. Raised by her grandmother while her father was incarcerated, she learned resilience, creativity and the value of education by watching the woman who held her family together.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without my grandmother,” she said. “She taught me what faith looks like, what sacrifice looks like, what it means to love family no matter what you’re going through. I refused to allow my dad’s circumstances, or growing up in poverty, to be the end of my story. Those experiences were my beginning, but not my final destination.”
Her time at Elon shaped her leadership philosophy in lasting ways. As an undergraduate, she participated in Elon LEADS, alternative service trips with the gospel choir and study-abroad programs, became an Elon College Fellow (Arts & Sciences), a Ghana Periclean Scholar, and even organized a benefit concert on campus to raise money for ScholarCHIPS, bringing together a cappella groups, fraternities and sororities.
“All of my Elon experiences helped form who I am,” she said. “I developed lifelong relationships with professors, some of whom I’m still close with ten years later.” She shared special gratitude for President Emeritus Leo M. Lambert, President Connie Book, Randy Williams, Dean Kenn Gaither, Anthony Hatcher, Rodney Clare, Marnia McIntyre, and Marilyn Slade, all of whom played meaningful roles in her time at Elon.
Her advice for students hoping to create something that helps others is simple: “Start it now. Find a social issue you care about. Be creative about how you want to help. Share it with classmates, professors and people in the Elon community. You’d be surprised how many will want to support you.”
Looking ahead, her dream is to establish ScholarCHIPS chapters on college campuses, expand donor support and reach more of the nearly five million children of incarcerated parents in the United States.
“There’s so much work to be done,” she said. “We want to keep growing our family; new scholars, new donors, new volunteers. We want to scale our impact so even more young people know they’re worthy and they’re not alone.”
She encourages Elon alumni and community members to learn more or get involved by visiting scholarchipsfund.org or reaching out through ScholarCHIPS’ social media channels on Instagram and Facebook.
From national stages like CNN Heroes to being honored as a Woman of Worth, Arrington Brooks continues to rise and brings her scholars with her. Her mission remains to turn pain into purpose, to build community and to help young people believe in their own worth.
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