Austin Hays scholarship awards Ohio student with $20,000

Outfielder Austin Hays, in conjunction with the Reds and Bold.org, brought back the Austin Hays “All Your Heart” scholarship, which awarded Ohio student Gloire Mujanama with $20,000 to further his education.

As part of a pregame ceremony before Wednesday’s game against the Pirates, Mujanama received the scholarship check presented by Hays and his wife, Samantha.

The award, originally started in Maryland when Hays played for the Orioles, works to give back to college or high school students from low-income backgrounds who wish to continue an educational career.

Hays and his wife’s desire to give back to the communities they’ve been a part of originated from their faith. Unable to participate in a regular schedule with their church community during the season, they began to look for other ways to help locally.

“Baltimore had been really good to us for a number of years up to that point. My agent, Francis Marquez, suggested an organization called Bold.org, which works with different students who need some financial help to be able to go to school for different reasons,” Austin Hays said.

“He introduced us and we were able to meet up with them and talk about the scholarship for students in Baltimore. That was where that all started, which has since led to our community now being in Cincinnati. We wanted to be able to serve the community here and that's led to the scholarship for this year.”

Like all scholarship awards, Hays aims to make a difference by easing the financial burden of secondary education. This year’s recipient’s story stood out among the 500-plus applicants.

Mujanama, born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lived as a refugee in Burundi for 12 years. At 14, he and his family moved to the United States. Since then, Mujanama has learned English, maintained a 3.5 GPA and now works 12-hour shifts five days a week to support his family and his future.

Now living in Grove City, Ohio, Mujanama dreams of working in aviation, an aspiration he picked up while watching planes while at refugee camps in Burundi.

“One of the big reasons he wanted to become a pilot was because he knew what those planes were flying back and forth,” Hays said. “They were providing all kinds of different supplies and humanitarian aid to these different refugee camps. He's seen firsthand what a difference that can make in people's lives and that's what he wants to do. He feels a calling to serve once he gets his pilot's license. We're really hoping that this scholarship can help him have more time to just be able to achieve his goal of becoming a pilot and making a difference for other people in the future, too.”

As of now, Mujanama is enrolled at Columbus State Community College, working toward his associate degree. His next steps are to go to flight school, get his private license and then attend Ohio State University for a bachelor’s degree in aviation.

Finding out that he had received the scholarship elicited a joyous response, and Mujanama immediately shared the news with his mom.

“First, I was jumping [up and down] when I read my email,” Mujanama said. “A couple other emails I had gotten back started with, ‘Unfortunately,’ and this and that. When I kept going down, I saw an email that said, ‘Congratulations’ from Bold.org. That was my first scholarship from that kind of platform. I jumped up and down and I ran to my mom, and I was like, ‘Ma, you won’t believe it, guess what just happened.’ I just kept jumping. We have this traditional dance that we dance. I thought this called for the dance. That's how excited I was.”

Originally not a baseball fan, Mujanama is now. To no surprise, Hays is now his favorite player as well. Wednesday night was the first baseball game Mujanama attended.

Ultimately, Mujanama is grateful for the opportunity that Hays’ scholarship presents for him and others, believing that the award “makes it possible for anyone and everyone in need” to fund their future.