Civil engineering junior Adriana Ruiz saw her school expenses shrink after learning she was named an Obama Scholar by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund in August.
The scholarship is funded by a donation of $125,000 to the HSF from President Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize award money, according to a HSF release.
Ruiz received $2,500 at the beginning of the school year and will be awarded an additional $2,500 next year.
The scholarship was given to 12 Hispanic students nationwide — including students from USC, Harvard and UA — who plan to pursue a career in teaching high school science, technology, engineering and math classes.
Ruiz said she plans to pursue a teaching career in one of these fields after earning her master’s degree.
In her scholarship application essay, Ruiz wrote that she wants to help reduce a shortage of teachers in the fields of math and science.
“One of my teaching goals would be to help students see the importance of math and science and how they can apply the concepts within the field to real-life concepts,” she wrote.
After she applied to numerous scholarships this summer, Ruiz didn’t think she would be selected.
“To be honest, I didn’t think I would get it,” Ruiz said. “I was just applying to scholarships kind of just to do it. I didn’t think I would get any of them but I was really happy to get this one.”
She said being selected is a relief because of how much tuition costs haven risen and may continue to increase.
“It helps a ton because my scholarship from ASU used to cover everything and books,” Ruiz said. “Now that tuition has gone up, this $2,500 helps pay for the rest of the expenses such as books and the $500 I have left of tuition.”
ASU engineering lecturer Chris Lawrence, who taught Ruiz in an engineering dynamics class last spring, said she was a sharp student.
“Based on the questions she asked, I could tell she was well prepared and that she understood everything,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence wrote a letter of recommendation for Ruiz in March saying he was impressed by Ruiz’s level of community involvement outside ASU.
Lawrence said he was also impressed with Ruiz’s resume, which included experience as a high school girl’s basketball coach, a high school algebra tutor and a volunteer at local food banks.
“My overall conclusion was for a young person early in her college engineering career, these were pretty advanced commitments she was taking on,” Lawrence said.
Ruiz said she felt honored to be selected out of such a wide pool of applicants.
“I was hoping I would get it because I really needed it but afterwards I started thinking about it and it did feel pretty good to be selected out of so many people,” Ruiz said.
Reach the reporter at brennan.j,smith@asu.edu
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