From Waukegan to Stanford in nine not-so-easy years
Schuler Scholar gets college boost from Exchange Club
June 24, 2010
NewsSun
It was a long journey to Waukegan for a 9-year-old girl from Bogota, Colombia. Now, she's off to Stanford University.
Alejandra Mesa, 18, will be getting a grant from the university in Palo Alto, Calif., and $2,500 from the Lincolnland District of Exchange Clubs, whose 12 clubs include the Waukegan Exchange Club.
Mesa was a Youth of the Month for the local club and then was declared Youth of the Year at the recent Lincolnland District convention in Schaumburg. Her winning essay was about community service.
She dipped into her experience with the Schuler Scholar program, which sent her to India for three weeks last summer. Her essay stressed the importance of doing something meaningful for people you are supposed to be helping.
"I used the example of building a gazebo. It makes you feel good, but it won't help the people because the people need water and books for their school," she said. "Feeling good is a motivation, but you have to be careful and focus on somebody's needs."
She came to Waukegan from Colombia in March 2001 after her father, Carlos, decided the politics in the South American nation were too much of a problem. He left a civil engineering job with British Petroleum and became an elementary school teacher. He is now an assistant principal at Glenwood Elementary School in the Waukegan school district.
Mesa remembers having a hard time with English. She took a proficiency test and didn't score high enough to be in a class where just English was spoken. Her father and mother, Martha, opted to put her in that class anyway.
"It was really scary. But then being in that environment forced me to learn the language. I started having conversations," Mesa said.
Her father spent one spring break translating books that were coming up in the next semester.
"It was terrible. I hated that week, but it helped a lot," she said.
Her older sisters, Catalina and Laura, had a little harder time because they were older. By middle school, Alejandra had lost her Colombian accent.
In high school, she was a member of the marching band color guard and captained the team in her senior year. She was also a member of the choir and drama club. She was president of the National Honor Society during her senior year and was class valedictorian.
She wants to follow in her father's footsteps by going into either mechanical or aerospace engineering. She thought about attending Northwestern University or Brown University, but someone on the Schuler program staff convinced her to try Stanford.
"They said you never know what happens," she said.
Her reaction to being accepted?
"I screamed. I really fell in love with it," she said.
She has fond memories of high school. She'll remember her prom and basketball games.
"It was the energy. Everyone was so excited for every single game. It was awesome," she said.
Her message to classmates at graduation was simple: "Whatever you do in life is your own choice. It's up to no one else." |
