Ahmed-dad-full.jpg
Franklin High senior Ahmed Gadi, shown with his father, Dawood Mohamed, has won a full-ride scholarship to the college of his choice. Oregon has 28 new Gates Millennium Scholars this year, a record.
(Helen Silvis / TheScanner.com)
A record 28 Oregon students, including 11 from Portland-area schools, have won prestigious full-ride Gates Millennium Scholarships designed to allow the nation's most promising low-income minority students to attend college and graduate school for free.
The winners, announced Friday, include an Ethiopian immigrant who didn't start learning English until age 14 and a football team captain whose work tutoring freshmen showed "the patience of a saint." Many are immigrants who learned English as their second language and now read and write it with exceptional skill.
They are among just 1,000 students chosen nationwide from more than 52,000 who applied. The scholarships can easily exceed $200,000 in value.
Woodburn and Madras high schools each had three winners, and Reynolds High and Portland's Roosevelt High each had two.
Hawi Hussen
The Roosevelt winners are Isaac Kelly and Hawi Hussen. Hussen, who immigrated from Ethopia, arrived bilingual in Oromo and Amharic and, at 14, quickly learned English, said vice principal Elisa Schorr. Hussen has taken extremely rigorous courses at Roosevelt, including multiple Advanced Placement classes. She is headed to Oregon State University and hopes to become a doctor, Schorr said.
Kelly is a true intellect and scholar who challenges himself, says his counselor, Laurel Auda-Capel. None of his brothers or sisters has graduated from high school, and he "has really chosen to take a different route from the rest of his family," Auda-Capel said.
Isaac Kelly
"His teachers tell me he is incredibly brilliant, and I have never read writing by a high school student like his," she said.
Science is his passion, she said. He pushed a teacher to create an honors biology option just for him "so he could do extra work beyond what was expected of the rest of the class," she said. He spent three weeks in a college-level, lecture-based science institute at Brown University last summer.
He will likely go to Lehigh University, Auda-Capel said. He said he plans to double major in engineering and philosophy.
Jose Toledo, co-captain of the Century High football team, is the lone winner from the Hillsboro school district this year. Adults who know him call him a natural at mentoring younger people and say his work ethic is outstanding.
Jose Toledo
"He is truly one of the kindest people you will ever meet" and "has the patience of a saint" when tutoring freshmen, said teacher Heather Zehr. "Kids request Jose for every tutorial we have. He acts as a mentor to all of my kids. Jose Toledo is exactly what Century High School wants to send out into the world."
Varsity football coach Bill Smith said of Toledo: "Jose would be the first to help a young player. Jose would stay late after practice to work on a perceived deficiency. Jose was selected as a team captain because he is universally respected. You cannot find anyone who can say anything negative about Jose -- just a quality, hard working young man."
Vianey Jimenez
Reynolds' two winners are Vianey Jimenez and Alexander Nguyen.
Jimenez transferred to Reynolds from California her junior year and jumped right in to leadership roles at the school, from making videos for the school's closed-circuit TV network to becoming an officer of the school service club and president of the Latino club.
She has taken numerous AP classes, said social studies and college readiness teacher Teresa Osborne.
"She is interested in business and entrepreneurship," Osborne said. "She sees herself creating and running a company."
She was accepted to numerous selective schools and is leaning toward attending the University of San Francisco, Osborne said.
Alexander Nguyen, who friends call Alex, speaks Vietnamese and English and is studying Japanese. He has done extensive community service with the school's Japanese club, working on Sister City efforts between Gresham and Ebetsu, Japan, and in the city's Japanese garden, Osborne said.
He has taken AP classes, including on European history and U.S. government, and asks a lot of questions to gain a deep understanding, Osborne said. "He is a hard-working student. He tries to really grab ahold of concepts."
He is leaning toward attending the University of Washington, she said.
"They are both really really fine young people. They have good hearts," Osborne said. "They are both kind and generous individuals, and I am really proud of them."
Minh Nguyen
Minh Nguyen, leader of David Douglas High School's winning rocketry team, also won a Millennium Scholarship. Born in Vietnam, Nguyen arrived in Portland late in elementary school knowing no English, said her counselor, Denise Riesenman.
This is Riesenman's 35th year on the job, and she says "Minh is one of the most amazing kids I have ever met. She pushes herself way beyond expectations."
"She is a science girl right down the pike," Riesenman said. "And some of the essays she writes just knock your socks off."
She has done summer science internships in California and at Oregon Health & Science University. She will attend Yale in the fall and, not surprisingly, will major in science, Riesenman said.
"She is the sweetest girl. She helps everybody. She catches on to things to quickly and then mentors other kids. There is just nothing that is a negative about her."
Jose Zarco Rodriguez
Aloha High senior Jose Zarco Rodriguez, born in the U.S. but raised in Mexico, left his parents' home in that country to live in Hillsboro with his sister and her husband beginning in his freshman year of high school.
He arrived with almost no English skills but advanced to proficient by January of his sophomore year. He has maintained a 4.0 grade average while taking AP Physics, AP Biology, AP Spanish, AP Microeconomics, AP English Language and pre-calculus.
He had to rapidly grow from child to man when he moved away from his parents at age 15, says his teacher, Helen Lovgren. The past three summers, he has worked in the fields, harvesting fruit and vegetables and caring for nursery stock. He also volunteered as a counselor at a day camp for younger students, tutors fellow Aloha High students and used his bilingual skills to help at a Spanish-speaking health clinic.
"Because of his intelligence, perseverance and strong commitment to goals, he has met the challenges of becoming an adult before his time," Lovgren said. "This young man is mature beyond his years and aware of his responsibilities to his family--his parents in Mexico and his sister and brother-in-law in Oregon."
Until he won the Gates scholarship, he had planned to work full time after high school while attending Portland Community College so his brother-in-law would no longer have to support him.
He now plans to go to a four-year school and hopes to become a civil or environmental engineer.
Anabel Moreno-Mendez
The valedictorian at Umatilla High School, Anabel Moreno-Mendez, also won a full ride to college. One of five children, she has attended Umatilla schools since kindergarten and learned English as her second language.
Moreno-Mendez has taken all of the advanced courses her high school offers, including honors and AP. She took part in Battle of the Books and math competitions, played goal keeper on the soccer team, ran track and was on the robotics team.
Her school counselor, Dee Lorence, calls her "very naturally curious, inquisitive and determined." She will likely attend Dartmouth and plans to major in international business or cognitive science.
Franklin High senior Ahmed Gedi won a Gates scholarship, as did his older sister, Mako. Born in Syria to Somali parents, Gedi came to Portland as a refugee when he was about 4. He still speaks Somali at home, but has learned English and numerous computer programming languages, too.
Last year, Oregon had 21 winners.
Funded by $1.6 billion from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Millennium Scholars program selects 1,000 top low-income students each year and agrees to pay all their unmet financial need to attend any college they choose.
The program also provides winners with leadership development opportunities, mentoring, and academic and social support.
Winners also can have their graduate school paid for if they study computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science. All the Gates scholars receive mentoring and leadership training, and so far, 87 percent of participants have earned undergraduate degrees.
Oregon's other winners are:
Madison High, Portland: Nhu Do.
Centennial High: Siva Ho.
Gabriel Guttierez-Aragon
De La Salle North Catholic School, Portland: Gabriel Gutierrez-Aragon
Woodburn High: Giselle Lopez Ixta, Jay Patel and Yoanna Barajas Hernandez
Madras High: Jazmine Ike-Lopez, Gabrielle Morales and Stephanie Olivera.
Burns High: Jon Caponetto
Churchill High, Eugene: Bella Anglin
Sheldon High, Eugene: Jada Allender
Corvallis High: Erikjone Cruz
McKay High, Salem: Jovani Corona-Quevedo
South Salem High: Leone Davila
McMinnville High: Juan Cortes Perez
Springfield High: Carolyn Ruiz-Moreno
Willamette High, Eugene: Yasmeen Pelayo
Willamina High: Shane Thomas
-- Betsy Hammond
betsyhammond@oregonian.com
503-294-7623; @chalkup