Salem, MA Groom Construction Co., Inc. awarded their first Annual Diversity Equity & Inclusion Scholarship to Marvelous Akande, a dedicated Lynn English High School student.

Born in Nigeria, Marvelous fell in love with art and architecture at an early age after taking a technical drawing class at her boarding school. At this time, her father worked in the USA and her brothers lived with family. Her father eventually moved Marvelous and her family to the USA three days before she started high school.

Marvelous plans to take a gap year to serve in the National Guard while training as a carpentry and masonry specialist. Having been accepted to several colleges including Mount Holyoke, Northeastern, and Wellesley, she has chosen to attend The University of Massachusetts Amherst Honors College where she will study architecture.

Marvelous states her role model is Lix Ogbu, a socially conscious architect who addresses spatial/racial justice in her community centered work. Marvelous said, “Architecture is a vehicle to promote cultural awareness. I will work hard to be a mentor and role model for others someday.”

“Marvelous is one of the most amazing young people I have ever met. She is very self-aware, intelligent, as well as a hard-worker,” said Kathleen Cormier, college mentor at Girls Inc. of Lynn. “She has been very active in programs at Girls Inc. and has taken several leadership roles, including serving as a Peer Leader in the Beach Sisters Program, where she mentors middle school students in a collaborative marine science-based curriculum.” Marvelous is also a member of the Robotics Club and Math Team and currently has an internship at HGA Architects through the Career Paths Programs at Girls Inc.

“Groom Construction is pleased to award this scholarship to such an exceptional young person who is destined to make a mark on this world,” said Dwight Groom, principal at Groom Construction.

Groom is thrilled to institute this annual scholarship program for historically underrepresented demographics, as well as students entering the construction management field through an academic track.

Groom has steadily built a national reputation over the past 42 years. The company’s early focus was residential construction which quickly expanded to include a wide array of multi-unit, mixed-use, affordable housing and commercial projects spanning the academic, medical, corporate office, retail and banking sectors.