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Christopher Richardson

Biography

Christopher Richardson, 23, lost a leg to cancer at the age of 15 but with his mother's help did well in school and learned to walk again with an artificial limb. Mr. Richardson excelled at Emory University, not only with his 3.75 GPA, but also as president of the student body and advocate for cancer patients. With a passion for social justice, Christopher hopes to spark a progressive movement in the South. He will attend Duke University's School of Law.

Abandoned by his father before birth, challenged by poverty, and surrounded in his North Charleston, South Carolina neighborhood by peers who mocked his passion for learning, Christopher Richardson nevertheless remained focused on the powers of education. He writes, "My mother constantly told me her mission was to make sure I never wanted for knowledge. Clothes faded with time, but education could bring me all the opportunities she never had for herself. This is the reason why no matter how tired she was from her own job, no day passed without her sitting down at the kitchen table to review all my homework. How we struggled in those days is what motivates me." When his stepfather joined the family, Christopher learned a whole new set of lessons about the difference people could make. It became a lesson that he would decide to make his life's work.

At age 15, Christopher was told that he had bone cancer in his leg and had no more than five years to live. Despite that searing experience, he found reason for hope in the courage of the other children with whom he shared the cancer ward. In the years since, he has not only outlived that doctor's prediction, but also vindicated his mother's faith in him and learning. While earning a bachelor's degree from Emory University, he won a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, was named a Marshall Scholar National Finalist, and was elected as president of the Emory Student Government. He also built a sterling reputation among the faculty. One professor said, "Chris is quite simply the most exceptional student I have encountered in 19 years of teaching at Emory and Brown universities."

Such platitudes reflect more than Chris's academic excellence. He also has shown tremendous focus on helping others. As president of student government at Emory, he organized a campaign to free a friend's wife from a Chinese prision. His efforts galvanized the commitment of student governments at numerous colleges and inspired action in the US Senate and State Department that freed the woman and brought her to the US less than two years later. Chris also declined a scholarship to study at St. Andrews in Scotland to instead develop a program for Atlanta Legal Aid that helps low-income cancer patients with legal matters. The program has now served hundreds of clients free of charge, including saving homes, securing disability benefits, and linking them to the services of other helping agencies. As he heads to Duke University's School of Law, Mr. Richardson vows his drive to combine knowledge and service will not wane. He will, he says, continue to use law "as a tool to fight injustice."

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