Two incoming Georgetown University Law Center students were named Tillman Scholars, a prestigious scholarship for military service members, veterans and military spouses, the Pat Tillman Foundation announced July 10.
Simon Hernandez (LAW ’28) and Cornelia Dixon (LAW ’28) will receive tuition and expense support, leadership development and networking as part of the program. Hernandez and Dixon join 40 other awardees, chosen from over 1,700 applicants, who are pursuing higher education and aim to positively impact their communities, according to the foundation.
Hernandez said he is excited and grateful to begin law school as a Tillman Scholar.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” Hernandez said in a university press release. “It feels almost like it was meant to be, because I’ve wanted to go to Georgetown for so many years.”
Dixon said Georgetown is the perfect place to be a Tillman Scholar because of the university’s commitment to public service.
“Georgetown is dedicated to creating students who give back to the community,” Dixon said in the university press release. “I’m excited to dive in and be surrounded by other people who are interested in the law.”
Hernandez served as a combat engineer in the Washington state National Guard, followed by intelligence work at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and language training at the DOD-run Defense Language Institute. Dixon worked for Teach for America in Hawaii — where she met her husband, a U.S. Army servicemember — and hopes to advance legal advocacy as a Tillman Scholar.
Hernandez, who will study tax law to advance affordable housing policy, said receiving housing assistance in his childhood inspired him to help other families.
“I don’t want anyone to have to choose between paying rent and meeting their children’s needs,” Hernandez said in the Tillman Foundation’s press release. “As an attorney I plan to change policy to encourage affordable housing for all.”
The scholars program is the cornerstone of the Pat Tillman Foundation, which honors former National Football League (NFL) player Pat Tillman, who left the NFL to become a U.S. Army ranger after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004. Hernandez and Dixon are Georgetown’s 22nd and 23rd Tillman Scholars, according to the university.
Dixon, who is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, said her family instilled values of public service in her and that becoming a Tillman Scholar reaffirms the difficulties her family has overcome.
“I get to go to this school that I’ve always dreamed of,” Dixon said. “It really affirms all the sacrifices that we’ve made.”
Hernandez said he hopes his time as a Tillman Scholar will set up his life with his wife and two children.
“My family is my main motivation for everything I do,” Hernandez said in the university release. “I want my kids and my wife to have a good future and hopefully inspire them and set an example.”