In another letter to Ms. Morrison, she wrote that he hired her based largely on a transcript of your phone recommendation.. She settled into a routine balancing work and writing. She was., Mackenzie was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania with a full scholarship, facilitated by QuestBridge. Mr. Bezos and Ms. Scott in 2018, the year before the couple divorced. She took a sip of water and began crying. Soon, representatives from Lost Horse were calling nonprofits around the country about multimillion-dollar donations from an anonymous giver. Since Mr. Bezos and Ms. Scott joined the board, tax records show, the foundation has given away more than $300 million. Ms. Scotts father ran an investment advising firm called J. Baker Tuttle Corporation, which by her teenage years was paying him about $360,000, or over It just seems like, if nothing else, Mackenzie's father might have been able to corroborate her story because Cindy may very well have been abusive to him too. Her first big statement as a newly single woman came less than five months later on the website of the Giving Pledge, started by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett as a place where billionaires promised to give away at least half their wealth. A month after beginning the journal, Mackenzie came to school with a black eye. Mr. Bezos wanted to quit his job at D. E. Shaw to take a flier on selling books over the primitive dial-up version of the internet. Jane Dmochowski, a faculty member at Penn who had become close with Mackenzie and often had her over, said that in the months before the trial Mackenzie got several hang-up calls: She would get so upset, and I never pried and asked who it was, but it was hugely concerning.. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I envy her because shes so important.. The court agreed to hold a trial reviewing the evidence against her. barred her father from associating with any investment adviser for fraudulent, deceptive actions, shutting the door on an easy comeback for the familys fortunes. Many in publishing were resentful. Penn seemed to embrace Mackenzies story as evidence of its commitment to promoting social and economic mobility. Mackenzie began documenting her life with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, Henry Lovelace, Jr., a personal trainer who had won the Missouri Strongest Man Championship in his weight group. They didnt respond, though Mackenzies biological mother has denied the allegations of abuse. The university, in its response to Mackenzies lawsuit, referred to Mackenzies mother as an accomplished physician and claimed that a court had found her allegations not to be credible. She achieved her goal of studying creative writing under Ms. Morrison, who had recently won the Pulitzer Prize. The father of one of Mackenzies high-school peers reached out to a Penn official, to explain that the news coverage about Mackenzie was inaccurate. ), After investigating Mackenzie for more than three months, the O.S.C. Mackenzie Fierceton didnt Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. During conversations with her mother in the kitchen, she made sure to keep the kitchen island in between us, while also bracing for impact. She thought about running away, but she didnt have anywhere to go. She said that she was usually glad not to have to line edit for a living anymore. I wanted so deeply for people to understand what it means to not have a family, and I had this fear of people being, like, What happened to youthat doesnt count.. She described the one who almost killed me. She described in detail how she had been at the top of her carpeted staircase trying to tease gum out of Mackenzies hair with a comb: She immediately screamed, ow, jerked her head back, and, after stepping back two or three stairs, stomped off to her room and slammed the door. Photograph by Robbie Lawrence for The New Yorker, Heres an apocryphal story that I figure prominently in., Can I help you find anything or prevent you from folding that shirt in such a way that I will immediately have to refold it?, I just hope the world doesnt end before people can see our outfits., Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. MacKenzie Bezos and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that they had finalized the terms of their divorce on Twitter on April 4. A month later, the Rhodes Trust informed Mackenzie that it was launching an investigation into her personal history. Norton, with whom Mackenzie had been living for nearly a year, told me, I cannot avoid the sense that Mackenzie is being faulted for not having suffered enough. In April, 2021, six days before Mackenzie gave up the Rhodes Scholarship, she got a letter from Penns Office of Student Conduct (O.S.C.) Mackenzie stayed at school late that night, rehearsing for a musical. Mackenzie told the hospital staff that she didnt remember what had happened. Scott was her grandfather. Marguliss son was in Mackenzies math class, and she worried that, if she did anything out of the ordinary in the boys presence, her behavior could be used against her. This is not simply a matter of believing survivors or showing a decent deference to a persons understanding of their life experience, she wrote. One of young MacKenzies own first public appearances was with her fourth-grade class in December 1979 at a Ross Town Council meeting, where she presented a class project to raise money to plant a new tree. Mackenzie told me, I wish I had taken more time to precisely describe the nuances of their livesit was a simplification of a complex story., A letter of endorsement from Penn, signed by Beth Winkelstein, the deputy provost, said that Mackenzie understands what it is like to be an at-risk youth, and she is determined to re-make the systems that block rather than facilitate success., The sixteen-year tenure of Penns president, Amy Gutmann, had been defined by her efforts to position Penn as a school that addressed inequality rather than perpetuating ita pivot that many lite universities have attempted. The administrative ruling was first reported by Medium Marker. She was 23 and he was 29. With Moores permission, her story was put on fund-raising material sent to alumni, and Gutmann summarized Moores life story in a commencement address. Shortly after a reporter appeared at those addresses seeking comment last month, Ms. Scott published her latest missive on Medium, announcing another $3.86 billion in gifts, and returning to her practice of noting the total dollar value of her gifts. She petitioned a circuit court in St. Louis to remove her from the registry, arguing that the boards finding was based on insufficient evidence and would compromise her employment. In 2018, Forbes magazine named Mr. Bezos the richest man in the world, bringing a new level of attention and scrutiny on him, on his company and, by extension, on her. Its about trying to construct a common life together. Occasionally, Mackenzie has a painful longing for the mother she remembers as a young child, but it is not her that I am grieving, she said. According to a one-page form signed by a judge, there was no probable cause to believe that the petitioner committed the offense. The arrest had been based on false information., Once the charges were dropped, Mackenzies Spanish teacher, Catalina Martinez, sensed that community sentiment toward Mackenzie had shifted. She showed up at the foster home, where three other children livedone was a foster child and two were the foster parents biological childrencarrying clothes in a plastic bag. When we allow stereotype to be our stand-in for disadvantaged groups, we are actually doing them a disservice, he said. And unlike with Bystander Revolution, she was front and center. Shed tried to cover it up with concealer, but her teachers noticed, and Fendell pulled Mackenzie out of her Spanish class. Mr. Jewett was the kind of teacher students appreciated, jovial in manner and serious about his subject. While Ms. Scott may be seeking to stay in the background, her funds are reshaping the nonprofit sector in the United States and beyond. The universitys pleading portrayed Mackenzie as a discredited person who cannily concocted a tale of abuse: as a child, she had regular temper tantrums, beyond the normal range for an adolescent. Then she had claimed to fall ill at school and presented a fictitious account of abuse by her mother. According to the pleading, her claims of abuse kept her family muzzled, leaving her in control of her narrative., Four days after the response was filed, the Chronicle published its article, giving ample weight to each side and quoting from the universitys pleading. She was tirelessshe seemed to be fighting the worlds fight and really engaged in the struggle for a more just world, he said. Winkelstein asked what happened the night before she was hospitalized. The Trust determined that, in Mackenzies medical records, there is no reference to dried blood, distorted facial features, or cessation of breathing. The report also pointed to inconsistent descriptions of the length of time Mackenzie had spent in foster care. ), Three of the people who had written Mackenzie recommendations for the Rhodes composed new letters affirming that she had never misrepresented her life to them. She has set about disbursing her enormous fortune with unprecedented speed and directness to frontline charities and nonprofits with a stated emphasis on advancing social justice and combating inequality, all while trying to keep herself out of the spotlight. There was also a nascent sense in the book of philanthropy as a good. That power deserves civic scrutiny and attention.. Walter Licht, the faculty director of the program, described Mackenzie as the sort of student who asks a question that makes everyone stop and brings the quality of conversation to a different pitch. The Civic Scholars were encouraged to analyze how their identities intersected with systems of oppression and privilege. When I founded Penn First, it was for students just like her, and her membership and leadership in the club was welcomed with open arms, she explained. In a letter to herself, an exercise assigned to all the scholars, Mackenzie wrote, I know that my first 18 years on this planet will always be a part of who I am, but how do I move on and start this new chapter of my life without pretending like it never happened?, Elizabeth Cannon, the senior associate director of Civic House, where the program is based, sensed that Mackenzie was more vulnerable than she acknowledged. Mackenzie appealed the decision, arguing that the first-generation question had not felt straightforward. But he was troubled that her status as a low-income student had ever been challenged. He was known among fellow teachers for giving high-fives to all the faculty members on Friday afternoons. It is unclear exactly how big Ms. Scotts own staff is, but it is believed to be a small fraction of the Gates team. The number of first-generation students on campus became a new benchmark, a sign that a university was fulfilling its social contract. Mackenzie grew up in St. Louis, Missouri with her mother, Carrie Morrison, left, who allegedly abused her, as her boyfriend, Henry Lovelace Jr., right, sexually abused her Mackenzie attended the $30,000-a-year Whitfield private school in St. Louis Parents and teachers from Whitfield gave her new clothes and school supplies. Knowing that Penn had already spoken with Morrison, they asked her for a meeting, too. Morrison petitioned the St. Louis County Circuit Court to expunge her arrest record. She was trying so hard to please, to get acceptance. At Penn, Mackenzie began to realize, Oh, I actually have no idea who I am., When Mackenzie had applied to Penn, the universitys automatic coding system had categorized her application as first generation, because she had not filled in personal data about her biological parents. She is poor, but she has not been poor for long enough. Would I have ever considered a job in finance if I hadnt been having those difficulties? she asked. Shortly before Ms. Scotts 17th birthday, her familys fortunes took a sudden turn. I dont remember, but I was told I drove, Mackenzie said. She told me that she wished shed pushed back harder on the way she was characterized. Anea Moore, then a sophomore, had helped found the group the previous year. Critics complained that she had retreated into less transparency rather than share more information, as nonprofit governance experts had called for. Then she grabbed Brandts hand and asked her to keep Morrison out of the hospital room. Mike Morrison Mikes passion centers on developing leaders at all ages, from the She gave fast. At one point, as she approaches the bodyguards car, Jessica thinks, She will not try to influence this womans opinion. Like Ms. Scott, he got divorced in 2019. She just bursts out laughing, Mackenzie wrote. She had a feeding tube inserted, and was given a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome. Molly Mudd, a nurse assigned to her case, told me, There was the physical component happening with her head injury, but there was also the emotional component of someone who has been fearful for a long time and has tried to push it down, and all of a sudden it catches up to her. However, an anonymous father reported that she belonged to a rich family and an investigation was put upon her. With the sought-after prize of Ms. Morrison as her thesis adviser, Ms. Scott had written a 168-page work of fiction called The Fathering Water, in which the father, Luther Augery, keeps hidden that he has quit his job and settled for a low-paying one. Then the University of Pennsylvania accused her of lying. After noticing that the childrens book Watership Down was full of specific plant names, she hopped on my Schwinn and rode to the library to hunt down a botanical encyclopedia, and for the next year, all my stories were stuffed with extraneous mentions of trees and flowers, as she wrote in the afterword. Amazon was Mr. Bezos dream, and Ms. Scott did not give up on her own dream of writing novels. Their gift was incredibly consequential, said Zach Silk, campaign manager of Washington United for Marriage, completely changing the scale of what had been a pretty scrappy but somewhat underfunded effort. One question on the application asked, Are you the first generation in your family to attend college? The Web site of Penn First Plus, a university program founded in 2018 to support F.G.L.I. El-Fahmawi told me, I was genuinely worried and surprisedshe was completely on her own., During her sophomore year, Mackenzie decided to apply for a masters at Penns school of social workshe could begin the program while completing her undergraduate degreebecause she wanted to help young people who had aged out of foster care. Within a half hour, police officers arrived at the hospital. and Y.M.C.A. Public records also show that Lost Horse has an office of its own in a brand-new eco-friendly building in Seattle. When youve grown up with privilegeand everything around you is pretty and pristine and predictableyour tolerance for anything outside that world isnt very high, Martinez said. Princeton classmates recalled her as passionate about books and deeply engaged in her studies. Its hard to breathe because my ribs are so severely bruised, and I cant laugh, smile, or chew without it hurting, Mackenzie wrote in a journal she kept at the hospital. The thought that this information may have been withheld from you felt utterly horrifying, Mackenzie wrote. The acclaimed novelist Toni Morrison was Ms. Scotts mentor at Princeton University. Subscribe today ], Her mother was a respected figure in the St. Louis medical community, and, when Mackenzie was injured, she saw doctors affiliated with her hospital. The pediatrician felt awful for not pushing the issue, Brandt wrote. In addition, she would have to take a mandatory leaveto get needed counseling and supportbefore the university would grant her M.S.W. She sent the Rhodes Trust medical and family-court records, along with letters from twenty-six people in her life. A privileged child, she left a Connecticut boarding school after her family declared bankruptcy. In a supplement to the grievance, Smith wrote that Penns disciplinary procedures served to shelter the University from review of its role in encouraging the decisions for which it is now punishing her., Mackenzies social-work degree is still being withheld. She was no longer seen publicly as Jeff Bezos ex-wife first. She imagined that starting over would be the easiest thing b/c I wasnt leaving behind a regular family like so many others, she wrote in her journal, two weeks after arriving at Penn. Im a Black woman, Im middle-aged, Im a single parent of a special-needs child, and I cant do anything that would jeopardize the lawsuit, she said. An essay by Toni Morrison: The Work You Do, the Person You Are.. Her sudden spate of giving has now reached 1,257 groups, from little-known charities to mainstream organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which last month received $436 million, her largest known gift. 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