The Heart of What We Do!
The Southern University Alumni Federation - Arizona Chapter (SUAF-AC) Excel Scholarship is at the HEART of what we do. The SUAF-AC Excel Scholarship supports Arizona students at any Southern University System school who demonstrate academic excellence, campus leadership, and community service.
The Southern University System — the nation's only HBCU system — proudly serves more than 12,000 students annually, consisting of five campuses across the State of Louisiana: Southern University, Shreveport (SUS); Southern University and A&M College (SUBR); Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SU Ag Center); Southern University Law Center (SULC); and Southern University, New Orleans (SUNO).
The SUAF-AC's ultimate goal is to offer full scholarships to Southern University System schools for the entirety of a student's academic life.
2025-2026 Excel Scholars
Hard Work. Dedication. Ambition.
This year, the SUAF-AC proudly awarded scholarships to a broad range of students — incoming freshmen just beginning their journey, and undergraduates who are already making their mark. We chose deliberately and thoughtfully. These are not names you may have seen in headlines. But they are extraordinary young women doing extraordinary things, and our community deserves to know them.
Kiarra Rosales
Marketing, Summa Cum Laude Graduate (December 2025)
If you looked up 'quiet achiever' in the dictionary, you might find Kiarra Rosales. A first-generation college graduate from Phoenix, Kiarra doesn't seek the spotlight — but the spotlight finds her anyway. She graduated from Southern University in December 2025 with a degree in Marketing, and she did it with Summa Cum Laude honors, placing her among the very highest academic achievers in her graduating class.
Her roots in Arizona run deep, woven into the fabric of her family's story and her community's identity. As a student athlete who competed in volleyball, Kiarra learned early what it means to show up every single day — for your team, for your studies, for yourself. That discipline, that quiet determination, is exactly the kind of character that defines the SUAF-AC's vision for who a scholar can be.
Today, Kiarra is charting a course toward a future where marketing and sports intersect — a rapidly growing field that needs voices like hers. She may not seek attention, but she is absolutely destined to make a difference. Watch for her name. You'll be hearing it again.
Anyah Jordan
Animal Science Major | Incoming Freshman | Next Gen Global Agriculture Scholar
Some things in life are too perfectly timed to be called coincidence. Anyah Jordan would call it God's work.
Back in 2018, Anyah's grandparents took the family on a road trip through Louisiana. During that trip, they visited a college campus. It was Southern University and A&M College. Anyah was young at the time — young enough that she may not have fully grasped what she was seeing. But something registered. Something stayed with her.
Years later, when it came time to decide where she would begin her college journey, she chose Southern. And standing in that place again — this time as a student, this time as a scholar — she felt the full weight of that full-circle moment. 'It's mind blowing how God works,' she said. 'I'm so glad I made the decision to attend THEEE Southern University.'
Anyah is pursuing a degree in Animal Science, and she brings with her not just a love of learning, but a story that reminds all of us: sometimes the journey begins long before we realize it has started. This semester, she was selected as a Next Gen Global Agriculture Scholar by the Southern University College of Agricultural, Human, and Environmental Sciences — a distinction that signals she is already being recognized as a rising leader in her field before her college career has even fully begun. Welcome to the SUAF-AC family, Anyah.
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Sereniti Johnson
Civil & Environmental Engineering | Incoming Freshman | Student Athlete, Volleyball
Sereniti Johnson is, in one word, formidable. As a Civil and Environmental Engineering major, she is preparing to enter one of the most impactful fields of our time — a field charged with building and protecting the infrastructure our communities depend on, from the roads we drive to the water we drink and the air we breathe.
And she will do it while competing as a volleyball player, balancing the physical demands and team discipline of athletics with one of the most rigorous academic tracks available. That combination — the engineer's precision and the athlete's grit — tells you everything you need to know about who Sereniti Johnson is.
The world needs engineers who understand communities. The world needs leaders who have been trained on real courts, in real pressure moments, to perform when it matters most. Sereniti is both of those things. Her future is not just bright — it is built to last.
Taylor Sykes
Psychology Major, Junior | Dean's List | Honors College | Alpha Lambda Delta
At 19 years old, Taylor Sykes is already living a life of purposeful service — and she is just getting started.
A Junior Psychology major at Southern University, Taylor holds a spot on the Dean's List, serves as a tutor to her fellow students, and is a member of the Honors College and the academic honor society Alpha Lambda Delta. She has worked with children professionally since the age of 16 — as a paraprofessional and preschool teacher — and brings a depth of compassion and real-world experience to her studies that many twice her age are still working toward.
Her plan? To earn her doctorate in Clinical Psychology after graduating in Fall 2026, and to dedicate her career to helping people navigate the inner landscape of the mind, trauma, and healing. Taylor understands what is at stake in mental health work — she has already seen it up close. She is not simply a student. She is a future healer.
To support someone like Taylor is to invest in every person she will one day help. And that is what scholarship is truly for.