Many of the nearly 200 students who this year received the UFT’s Albert Shanker college scholarships have achieved in spite of challenging personal circumstances. That put them in good company at the 47th annual awards ceremony on June 13.

“I was raised in the Polo Grounds housing project in the village of Harlem,” the Hon. J. Machelle Sweeting, a Civil Court judge and the keynote speaker, told the honorees in Shanker Hall at union headquarters in Manhattan. “There were more things I was told I could not do than there was a picture of what I could.’’ But, Sweeting said, because of public schools and committed teachers, “I was able to soar from the projects to the bench.”

The 180 high school seniors and nine prospective graduate students shared nearly $1 million in scholarships named for Albert Shanker, the UFT’s legendary leader. His widow, retired teacher Eadie Shanker, is on the scholarship committee and was a guest at the ceremony.

Judge Sweeting said Anthony Harmon, the director of the scholarship fund and a special assistant to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, wears many hats, but “the one he wears most proudly is the one that shows his compassion for young people.”

Said Harmon, “This ceremony is one of the highlights of all the work I am involved with; it is where you see some of the best and brightest in our public schools. After nearly 20 years in a high school classroom, I know how important scholarships are.”

Mulgrew had some advice for the honorees: “Surround yourselves with positive people and good things are going to happen,” he said. “This investment in you is an investment to make our city and our world better.”