Adryanna Jenkins improbable path from South Side Easton to Marshall Scholar at the University of Cambridge seemed impossible just seven years ago.

She failed her freshman year at Easton Area High School and was sent to Easton Area Academy to get back on track.

The 21-year-old biomedical student frequently missed school because she was trying to meet the needs of her four siblings and her mother. Her father wasnt available to help. He was murdered by his girlfriend in Bethlehem in 2007.

While helping her family shed frequently miss the school bus and had no way to get to school on time. By the time she walked to school or took a city bus shed be so late it wasnt even worth going.

She caught up on her classes at the academy the first half of her sophomore year and returned to Easton Area High School the second half of that year. After that, her mother overdosed.

I was very scared for her. I thought we lost her, said Nancy Smith, her gifted program advisor.

But Jenkins was able to overcome her troubled family history and put herself on a path to success. Shes poised to graduate Penn State University with a degree in immunology this spring. This fall shell pursue a masters degree in immunology in the United Kingdom under the prestigious Marshall Scholars program. She plans to ultimately obtain a dual M.D./Ph.D and become a cancer researcher.

Im really, really thankful and grateful to have received the scholarship, Jenkins said, adding, I have a lot of brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. Theyre all proud of me.

Smith said Jenkins benefitted from counseling both at the now-defunct Easton Area Academy and later at the high school.

She said Jenkins was paired with another girl who had also recently lost her mother so each could see they werent alone in their grief. She was sent that summer to a multicultural leadership session at DeSales University. She saw others who looked like her on a track to success and wanted that for herself, Smith said.

That was a big change for her. I think she actually saw a future for herself beyond what she was living in, Smith said.

Smith said Jenkins came back to school her junior year ready to work. She hasnt looked back since.

Her academic experience includes a summer studying biomedicine at the Yale University School of Medicine.

A'dryanna Jenkins of Easton won a scholarship to study immunology at the University of Cambridge. She lost both of her parents by the time she was 16. She was a BioMed Amgen Scholar at the Yale School of Medicine in the summer of 2019.Courtesy A'dryanna Jenkins

She said she wants to become a doctor because there werent many Black doctors for her or her family to turn to when she was growing up. Its hard enough for underprivileged people to obtain proper medical care, and on top of that theyre skeptical of what doctors can offer and seek alternative medical treatments. Thats how her mother wound up overdosing, she said.

Having witnessed many of my family members resort to these risky alternatives, I became determined to better address the needs of marginalized groups by increasing diversity and representation in healthcare, Jenkins said.

She sees a career as a laboratory immunologist as an opportunity for her to help as many people as possible.

I was amazed that one laboratory finding could improve the lives of millions, she said. I realized that marginalized patients throughout the world benefit directly from research that informs the development of medical therapies.

She lived with four siblings but actually has 10 brothers and sisters. Shell be the first of any of them to graduate from college. She hopes other young people who share her socio-economic status see her story as proof that they too can follow their dreams.

You are not predestined to live the same life as people who are struggling around you, Jenkins said. You can go on and do great things and be anything you want to be.

A'dryanna Jenkins of Easton won a scholarship to study immunology at the University of Cambridge. She will graduate from Penn State University this spring with a degree in immunology.Courtesy A'dryanna Jenkins

A'dryanna Jenkins of Easton won a scholarship to study immunology at the University of Cambridge. She lost both of her parents by the time she was 16. She studied abroad in Berlin, Germany, in 2019.Courtesy A'dryanna Jenkins

Initially conceived as a way to strengthen U.K. and U.S. relations after World War II, and a thank you from the U.K. for its namesake -- the Marshall Plan -- the Marshall Scholarship program gave U.S. applicants their choice of study at any British university. The program has grown from 12 students awarded the scholarship in 1953 to 46 students in 2021.

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.

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Her dad was murdered. Her mom overdosed. Yet this Easton grad is studying to be a cancer researcher. - lehighvalleylive.com