Layan Faraj had a lot to say as a kindergarten student new to the United States.

So she said it in Arabic.

Now a senior at Marine Science Magnet High School in Groton, she recalled the immediate problem: that those in school didn’t understand her, and she didn’t understand them. She ran into the rows of cubbies and cried into her father’s chest.

“I did not want to be the kid who was always quiet,” she said.

Faraj learned to read. And then the summer after kindergarten, she read book after book until she said the foreign language began to feel like her own.

In front of 630 people Tuesday night in the Premier Ballroom of Foxwoods Resort Casino for the 43rd Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Trust Fund, the aspiring doctor thanked her father for taking a risk by coming to this country. She thanked her mother for modeling resilience and inspiring her to keep standing up and trying again.

“I am an immigrant. A Muslim. An Arab. A woman. An American who dares to dream,” she said.

Faraj is one of 237 students for whom the scholarship program has helped ease the financial burden of college since King was assassinated in 1968. That’s when educators William and Eunice Waller offered a $100 scholarship to a New London High School student chosen by popular vote for best emulating King’s ideals.

On Tuesday, she was among the 12 who accepted $25,000 each to be distributed in $6,250 installments over a four-year period while they remain in college.

The selection process, described by organizers as rigorous, measures the candidates’ dedication to learning, their understanding of King's mission, the content of their character and their financial need. Each student whose essay, academic record and class standing gets them through the first round is then interviewed by the Board of Trustees’ scholarship committee before being presented to the full board.

Faraj hopes to attend Harvard University, Yale University or Brown University. A track athlete active in the Girls’ Youth Group, the Social Equity Action League and the Environmental Club, she volunteers outside the school with the Islamic Center of New London and Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. She has been a panelist with the Anti-Defamation League’s Names Can Hurt Us program and works with the organization’s Racial Equity Action League.

Norwich Free Academy senior Emmanuella Prempeh stood up before the crowd to recall the way she ate her chicken as a middle school student.

“Middle school me ate mine to the bone,” she said, like her aunts and uncles in Ghana.

Her backpack, too, was different. She described it as stitched with the heritage of her people.

“MIddle school me was laughed at for what they did not understand,” she said of her classmates.

She recalled not fully understanding for herself the value she carried on her back.

“This is the heritage that taught me to be kind, to be respectful, and to persevere,” she said. “This is the heritage that even if I stumble, even if I fall, like Maya Angelou: I rise, I rise, I will rise.”

Prempeh plans to study law at Howard University, Syracuse University or Brown University. Described in her scholarship biography as a poet and artist, she has presented at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marches and Norwich’s Rose Arts Festival, and will enter the Academic Cultural Technological Olympics Competition in poetry and drawing.

Birse Timmons, president of the scholarship trust fund’s Board of Trustees, welcomed the new recipients with a nod to previous ones like 2016’s Tayla Willson, who went on to work as a surgical assistant at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, and 2015’s Keana Foster Morrow, who this year became the Connecticut Teacher of the Year for her work with fourth grade students at Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School in New London.

“It is an honor when scholars come back home to serve their community, but even when they’re far, they ensure we feel the impact,” he said.

The honorees

Students honored from New London High School Multi-Magnet Campus were Nakayla Isaac, Cashel Jones, Aiyanna Mitchell and Tatiana Pemberton.

Isaac plans to study nursing and education at Boston University, Yale University or Eastern Connecticut State University.

Jones’ schools of choice include Boston University, Monmouth University and the College of the Atlantic. She plans to study conservational science.

Mitchell plans to study neurology at Howard University, Yale or the University of Connecticut.

Pemberton’s schools of choice include Spelman College, Howard and Yale. She plans to study dance and health care.

Marine Science Magnet High School students honored were Raidy Cabrera and Faraj.

Cabrera’s schools of choice include UConn, New York University and Boston College, where he plans to study psychology.

Norwich Free Academy was represented by Oliver Aubin and Prempeh.

Aubin plans to study dentistry at UConn, Eastern Connecticut State or Boston University.

Saint Bernard High School senior Shem Adams plans to study computer science at Boston College, Boston University or the University of Virginia.

Waterford High School senior Cole Baumgartner’s schools of choice include Endicott College, Morgan State University and Catholic University. He plans to study architecture.

Robert E. Fitch High School senior Mahi Patel plans to study dermatology at UConn, Brown University or Northeastern University.

Williams School senior Arnell Peck’s schools of choice include Bucknell University, The College of William and Mary and the University of Richmond. He plans to study business.

e.regan@theday.com