22 Oregon Teens Win Gates Millennium Scholarships
Posted on: Friday, 9 May 2008, 12:00 CDT
By Bill Graves, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
May 8--Stephen Lam, the son of immigrants from China, took the most challenging courses at David Douglas High, studied five hours a day, earned straight A's.
And he is about to reap the payoff -- a free ride to prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Lam, 18, is among 1,000 students in the nation, 22 in Oregon and three at David Douglas High in Portland to be named a Gates Millennium Scholar.
The scholarships, funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are aimed at reducing financial barriers for academically high-achieving African American, Latino, Native America, Asian American and Pacific Islander students from low-income families.
The scholarships cover tuition and other college costs such as books and fees. Lam said even without the scholarship, he still would have set his sights on Johns Hopkins, where tuition alone this fall will be $37,700.
"I would be in a lot of debt," said Lam, still frazzled from a four-hour Advanced Placement calculus exam. "This scholarship has been a major asset."
Lam, an accomplished pianist, took the health-sciences career pathway at David Douglas, completed an internship with a surgeon at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center and plans to study molecular biology at Johns Hopkins with hopes of advancing to medical school. His older brother already is there.
The highly competitive Gates scholarships, established in 1999, are awarded to 1,000 students each year on the basis of academics, leadership potential and community service. The program awarded $376 million worth of scholarships between 2000 and 2007, with the average award being $9,823.
The scholarships will support students for up to five years of undergraduate study and through graduate school in areas of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public service and sciences.
One of the goals of the fund is to increase minority representation in those disciplines, said Mary Williams, director of communication and administration for the program, which is managed by the United Negro College Fund. The program also gives students guidance, Williams said.
"We work with them on leadership development initiatives," she said. "We want them to continue to do well academically. . . . We have a leadership conference, and the objective is to assist them in navigating their campuses."
Half of the 22 Oregon seniors receiving Gates scholarships this year attend Portland high schools and six are from Salem. Half plan to attend Oregon colleges and universities. David Douglas and McKay High in Salem each produced three scholarship winners.
David Douglas, the state's largest high school, offers a big pool of potential Gates scholars. The proportion of David Douglas students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch has grown from 22 percent to 75 percent over the past 12 years, said counselor Denise Riesenman. Almost a third of the school's nearly 3,000 students are members of a minority group, she said.
"We have clearly defined career paths, and (students) are driven to get to where they want to go," she said, "and they work hard on it."
As a freshman, Ada Chang started down the social and human services path, but now, at age 18, she has decided science is her strength. Her Gates scholarship will support her in the fall in the honors program at Oregon State University, where she will study general science. It also gives her the option of going elsewhere, she said.
"My only regret is I didn't apply out of state," she said.
Chang, who played the Tin Man in the high school's production of "The Wizard of Oz," is the third of eight children. Her parents, immigrants from Laos, told her they had no money to send her to college and encouraged her to seek scholarships.
Caiyan Su, 18, who emigrated at age 6 with her parents from China, has concentrated on art at David Douglas, earned near perfect grades and was awarded free tuition at Tufts University near Boston. So she will use her Gates scholarship to pay for books and other school-related costs, she said.
Already an accomplished artist with one watercolor painting hanging at Portland International Airport, Su wants to combine studies of art and psychology and practice art therapy.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for students who have financial barriers," said Su, the first in her family to attend college. "By removing those financial barriers, students are free to pursue their goals and dreams in life and contribute to society."
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Source: The Oregonian
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