Bill Gates gives scholarship to WHS’s Garcia
Submitted by Wimberley1 on
Alberto Garcia didn’t just receive a scholarship. He received one from Bill Gates, and it will pay for his entire college career. (submitted photo)
Mikyela Tedder
WHS Journalism
It has not been an easy road for Alberto Garcia, but he accomplished his goal. The WHS senior knows how he is going to pay for his entire college career.
After four and a half months of gathering information, writing essays and fighting an urge to give up, Garcia was notified April 18 that he is one of 1,000 students selected from 52,000 applicants across the United States to earn a Gates Millennium Scholarship.
The scholarship, which is based on leadership, community service and academic achievement, is a good-through-graduation award that Garcia can use at any college or university of his choice. It will cover his tuition, housing, books and supplies, transportation and miscellaneous costs.
Garcia worked with Generation Pave the Way Counselor Traci Maxwell, WHS Head Counselor Pamela Phillips and St. Mary Catholic Church Youth Minister Morag Sell to complete his application. However, there were technical difficulties and bumps in the process that slowed it down or made it seem like he could not continue.
“My parents couldn’t get their electronic signature to work for the application, and even though it was only a few days before it was due, we were told it would take 3-5 weeks for the mail to get it there,” Garcia said. “I thought the process was over for me, but miraculously, it arrived in time.”
There were also issues getting Garcia’s college acceptance letter.
“I requested my ACT and SAT scores be sent to several colleges, but they had not arrived yet, and the colleges said they could not accept me without that necessary information,” Garcia said. “Luckily, I had a friend who knew the Dean at one of the colleges I was interested in, and when the scores arrived at the last minute, I received an acceptance letter the next day.”
Garcia said early on there were also times in the process when he questioned his decision to apply and felt discouraged, but Maxwell, Phillips and Sell wouldn’t let him give up. When he finally made a full commitment to the application process, he worked every day to give it his best shot. He set up a schedule to write or rewrite an essay for at least two hours a day.
“I worked on a rough draft, edited it, wrote a final copy and sent each essay off to have someone else edit it,” Garcia said. “Each day I did this, in addition to keeping up with my AP and college classes and training for two marathons. I would wake up at 3 a.m. and go run 13 miles with a friend, go to my college Brit Lit class at 6 a.m., work through a normal school day, and go home at night and work on college stuff.”
When Garcia found out March 6 he was a finalist for the scholarship, he had to gather more information. This time, though, he was eager to complete the task.
“I didn’t plan to make it that far, so when I learned I was continuing in the process, it inspired me to get things done quickly,” he said. “After that, the waiting game continued, and I just kept applying for other scholarships, in case this one fell through.”
Garcia said the day he found out he won the GMS, he had just turned in four other scholarship applications. He said that winning the scholarship is still hard for him to believe, and it has already changed his life in several ways.
“I have all of this newfound attention from everyone, and I now have more opportunities and decisions to make about my future,” he said. “Even though it still feels like winning this scholarship is a scene from a movie, I have learned so much. Everyone kept telling me not to give up, and now I can honestly say to others, that if they want something bad enough, and they work hard enough, they can get it.”
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