By Fatima Ayala, News & Commentary Editor
Being nominated for anything, especially when it aligns with your dream, can be a whirlwind of positive emotions. Thankfully, I was able to capture these emotions from one of our alumni. KAC’s senior, Mauricio, has been selected to attend Duke’s fly-in program later this semester, making the KAC community proud of his accomplishment and giving a beacon of motivation to everyone else.
Our senior seminar counselor, Ms. Fragoso, was able to nominate Mauricio and a few other students to get into Duke’s program due to KIPP being “one of the highest enrolled schools” in the network, according to Ms.Fragoso. But being nominated isn’t as easy as it sounds. These students must go above and beyond and go through Fragoso’s mental checklist, such as “do they have Duke on their wish list? Are they competitive enough for the school? Will the student be successful there? ” among other things, such as grades and class rank. Which can be a tough decision for Fragoso, but due to very few students having Duke on their college wishlist this year, it was easier for her to decide and nominate students.
Besides that, once Mauricio knew he got into the program, he was more than “excited, but more than anything, I felt a sense of relief,” knowing all his hard work paid off in the end, to the point where he “jumped out of bed because I was very excited to get in, and I celebrated with my parents.” Which is always a cute way to celebrate one’s own accomplishments. But of course he couldn’t have done it without the help and support of many. Mr. Nakamura wrote his letter of recommendation, in which Mauricio felt very confident due to the strong connection with him. Alongside him, he also went into a website called “New Admit” in which he “got it reviewed by I don’t remember his name but he was from Yale and reviewed my essay and gave me tips on my structure and flow and told me things I did well and what I can work on”. After getting reviews from “New Admit” Mauricio “got it (his essays) reviewed by other people like my friend Erick, which helped me strengthen the flow of my essay, and I also had final reviews made by my councilor Fragoso.” The reason as to why there’s such a big emphasis on his writing is due to “13 days out of the 15 … the essay took the longest because I wanted to perfect it. I didn’t want it to be bad and hurt my chances of getting in”. Which is a smart move since the essay is a great way to show one’s personality to admissions officers in college.
A big question still remains ‘what’s so great about this?’ Well, when talking to Mauricio, he was able to reveal information that he was given at the time of the interview. Such as “going to go into classrooms and see how the environment is and meet other KIPP students who got in through the fly in program.” But overall “the experience of being at Duke… would help me determine if I want to go to the school or not.” This is a great opportunity, given the great reputation that follows Duke’s name. But besides the prestige title, something else sparked Mauricio’s interest. When doing his own research about the school, he “found out their curriculum and how they incorporate research findings into their education, so every year is a new year with different curriculums. And I really want that for me because I want to be able to keep up with new findings.”.
Nevertheless, Mauricio is a prime example of what he preaches to the next generation of students and potential fly in programs, not just at Duke but at any other college they aspire to go to. That is, “Never give up on what you’re doing, especially if you feel like it’s not working out, because hard work will pay off. I was an example of that because last year I wasn’t in the ‘A’ group because of some mistakes that I made during my freshman year, but I worked hard and was able to get into the ‘A’ group,and as you can see, I was able to get into the Duke fly in program, so work hard.”
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