Imagine not having to pay a single penny for college. Sounds like a far off dream, right? Throughout all of high school, students strive to do well in their classes just to even get accepted into college, much less to pay for it. But for three seniors, this far-off dream is much more like a reality.
Emmanuel Valencia, Khuong Nguyen, Hong Nguyen, Janette Nguyen and Mariah Menedez have worked extremely hard to draw out a path for their future collegiate success. These five students, just months away from graduating, are excited for life after high school and have no worries of how they’ll get through college. Due to their hard work and academic achievements, they have been presented with full-ride scholarships to the colleges and universities of their dreams.
Valencia is a Posse Foundation full-ride recipient to Texas A&M University in College Station. The Posse Foundation scholarship is given to Posse scholars who demonstrate leadership and academic excellence. The foundation partners up with select colleges and universities to give out four-year, full tuition scholarships to high school seniors who go above and beyond in their school work and extracurricular activities.
“Texas A&M was my first and only choice, I set all of my strengths to getting into this school,” he said.
Valencia has many achievements and academic recognitions to his name, being both the vice-president of band and the president of Students for Humanity. He is also a member of National Honor Society and the founder and president of Pals, a club that specializes in mentoring elementary school kids.
“I will join STEM at A&M as an Engineering major,” he said. “My end goal is to gain a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and perhaps learn a bit on Civil Engineering.”
Khuong Nguyen is also a Posse full-ride recipient, and will attend the University of Virginia.
“I actually feel overwhelmed. Going into Kerr, I didn’t even know about the Posse Scholarship, so to even think that I would receive it was just impossible for me.”
Khuong, who plans to major in Kinesiology, was accepted to Texas A&M as well as the University of Texas at Austin. He is very involved with activities here, being a part of the Men’s Choir and president of the whole choir organization as well as being an executive board member in Student Council.
The valedictorian of the senior class and future ivy league graduate, Hong Nguyen’s QuestBridge College Match Scholarship was the icing on the cake. She is an active member in Choir, Future Business Leaders of America and student government. She is also involved with NHS, Tri-M music honor society, SAT Scholars and volunteer work. Hong will be attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a prestigious school that has produced exceptional businessmen such as Warren Buffet and Elon Musk.
“My dream since middle school was to get a full-ride to college, and finding out my dream came true was amazing beyond belief,” Nguyen said. “More importantly, Penn was my dream school, and just being accepted there almost made me happier than the full-ride itself.”
