W&L’s Moye-Green Awarded Beinecke Scholarship The Beinecke Scholarship Program provides funds for post-graduate study to students of unusual promise.

By Erica Turman
April 13, 2022

Tanajia Moye-Green ’23, a sociology major and poverty studies and data science minor at Washington and Lee University, has won a $34,000 Beinecke Scholarship to help fund her graduate studies. Moye-Green is a native of Polk County, Florida, and attended International Baccalaureate at Bartow High School.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program provides scholarships for the graduate education of students of unusual promise. The program encourages their pursuit of opportunities available in the study of the arts, humanities and social sciences.

“Being awarded the Beinecke has been one of the best things to happen to me,” said Moye-Green. “It was an incredibly challenging application process. This entire experience showed me that I somehow became the student I always dreamed of becoming when I was planning to attend college.”

In addition to her core studies at W&L, Moye-Green is interested in criminal justice reform and portraying the various ways in which mass incarceration has profoundly harmed Black communities. She has also focused a portion of her studies on understanding the effects of childhood poverty on economic mobility and the consequences of adverse childhood experiences. She will utilize the Beinecke Scholarship to help fund the expenses associated with applying for and attending graduate school.

“Being awarded the Beinecke means that I will be able to go to grad school without worrying about all of the associated costs,” said Moye-Green. “It no longer seems unrealistic for me to aspire to go into academia and research issues on the criminal legal system, poverty and systemic racism. I would love to be an asset to anyone else who is planning on applying for the Beinecke Scholarship or other fellowships available to students. It is never too early to start thinking about these opportunities.”

During her tenure at W&L, Moye-Green has earned multiple fellowships. She received a Gilman Scholarship her first year and then a Critical Language Scholarship in 2021. Earlier this year, Moye-Green was selected for the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute Fellowship at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

“I first met Tanajia in September 2019, during her second week on campus, when she sought out my office to begin learning about fellowships available to her,” said Matthew Loar, director of fellowships at W&L. “What she has accomplished since then is simply astounding. Tanajia is an exemplary student and fellowship applicant: unafraid of the work and undaunted by the competitiveness of the awards, she has shown and continues to show what can happen by just putting yourself out there. I am thrilled for her.”

Moye-Green works for the ITS Helpdesk on campus and in the university’s Global Discovery Lab. She is a board member for the Community Anti-Racism Effort organization and serves as a peer mentor in the Community-Based Learning 100 course on local Black history. She is also an Appalachian Adventure trip leader and an active member of the Outing Club.

The Beinecke Scholarship is highly competitive. Since 1975, the program has selected 696 college juniors from more than 110 different undergraduate institutions for support during graduate study at any accredited university. Each scholar receives $4,000 immediately before graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school.

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