Congratulations to Alexander Rodriguez who has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Coca-Cola Scholars Program from an initial pool of over 102,000 applicants. Alex will continue through the selection process with an opportunity to receive a $20,000 scholarship.
The Coca-Cola Scholars Program recognizes students who demonstrate outstanding leadership, academic achievement and dedication to community service. Alex, who applied for this scholarship in the fall, has completed semi-finalist candidacy materials for the scholarship committee's review and is waiting to hear if he has been selected as one of 250 regional finalists.
In addition to a rigorous academic course load which includes five Advanced Placement classes this year, Alex is very involved in extra-curricular activities at Bishop Montgomery. A member of the National Honor Society since his sophomore year, Alex now serves as the club's president. He has also been the co-editor-in-chief of Knightlife, the school newspaper, since his freshman year. In the summer of tenth grade, Alex represented Bishop Montgomery at the Hugh O'Brien Youth (HOBY) State Leadership Seminar, and now is the president of Bishop's committee that selects the annual HOBY sophomore attendees and plans various service events throughout the school year. This past summer, Alex attended the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Youth three-day Leadership Institute at Loyola Marymount University, where he learned about networking and honing leadership skills, and also met with prominent national Hispanic business leaders. This fall, Alex's classmates recognized not only his achievements inside and outside of the classroom, but also his kindness and care as a peer leader when they elected him one of ten princes to Bishop Montgomery's Homecoming court.
This summer, Alex heard about the Coca-Cola scholarship from a Bishop classmate and decided to apply. "It seemed like they were looking for leaders," said Alex, "and I believe I am a strong, but, also, empathetic leader." If he wins, Alex says he will be very happy and he laughs, "so will my parents." But even if he is not selected, Alex says he is thrilled with how far he has made it and that "it [is] still an honor to make it to the semi-final round."
In addition to Coca-Cola, Alex has applied for other scholarships as well, in the hopes of offsetting some of the tuition for any of the eight prestigious colleges to which he has applied. Four of the schools-- UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, and Washington University in St. Louis-- Alex calls his "dream schools," and he says he would gladly go to any of them if accepted. With Alex's stellar academic record, as well as his active involvement in his school and community, that dream will most likely become a reality. Being recognized as a scholarship recipient by the Coca-Cola Scholars Program would certainly be an even bigger dream come true.