Dyhemia Young wins chess scholarship to Texas Tech

Dyhemia Young, left, and Sheila George, executive director of the East Palo Alto Teen Home, hug in the shelter’s kitchen. George accompanied Young to the Susan Polgar Girls’ Invitational chess tournament in Texas, where Dyhemia won a $40,000 scholarship.
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Dyhemia Young, 15, was given a black eye by another girl at the East Palo Alto group home before leaving for the chess tournament. Dyhemia was studying for her driver’s license test when the other girl became upset and hit her. “It all stemmed from jealousy,” Sheila George, who leads the group home and accompanied Dyhemia to Texas for the tournament, said by phone from Lubbock, Texas. “Dyhemia came down here with all this in her soul and mind and heart. She had to get rid of all that junk.”
See full story   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Dyhemia Young, 15, has been playing chess since a fifth-grade social studies teacher taught her the game. It paid off at an all-girls chess tournament recently. Dyhemia won a $40,000 scholarship to Texas Tech University.
See full story  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

“Without my supporters, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” said Dyhemia Young, pictured in her East Palo Alto group home bedroom. Donations helped her and a chaperone make the trip to a girls’ chess tournament at Texas Tech.
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Back in East Palo Alto, Dyhemia Young, left, talks with Sheila George, executive director of the East Palo Alto Teen Home. Upon winning the scholarship at the chess tournament, Dyhemia had only one thing to say: “Oh, my goodness.”
See full story  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)