Dreams were realized on Thursday morning in the Wooster High School Career Center, as the w88 sports betting app of Nevada, Reno welcomed five top scholars in a Nevada Scholars Signing Day Ceremony.
University President Milt Glick, along with Provost Marc Johnson and representatives of the University&w88 sports betting app;s Office of Prospective Students as well as key academic representatives such as College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources Dean Ron Pardini and College of Liberal Arts Associate Dean Kathy Boardman, were on hand for the ceremony.
Wooster Principal Debra Biersdorff told departing seniors Sara Beckman, Cayla Harvey, Noah McCoy, Isha Patel and Tim Sweet that “Wooster High School expects great things from you,” and that, “While you will always be a Colt (Wooster&w88 sports betting app;s nickname) at heart, I know you&w88 sports betting app;re ready to become part of the Pack.”
Glick agreed, noting that the five students would be “critical to our success, and to the state&w88 sports betting app;s success.”
He added that the ceremony – the first of several the University will embark on in the next few days at local high schools as the campus&w88 sports betting app; record number of 25 National Merit Scholars currently enrolled will continue to climb for the fall semester – was the University&w88 sports betting app;s way of celebrating the achievements of top local students who clearly deserve the limelight.
“We want to recognize these students the same we recognize people who are 6-8 with soft hands,” he said, noting that in every way, the five Wooster students were high school All-Americans just as a basketball player might be an All-American. “Our only disappointment is we don&w88 sports betting app;t have 40 of these people coming to our University.”
Then Glick added with a smile to Biersdorff, “Next year, that&w88 sports betting app;s what we&w88 sports betting app;re going to expect from Wooster.”
All five students had achieved exceptional academic records during their time at Wooster, a southwest Reno high school that features a widely acclaimed International Baccalaureate (IB) college preparatory program.
Beckman, a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, said she chose Nevada over Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Although she has family in Chicago and lived part of her life in Illinois, she said the University&w88 sports betting app;s offer of financial support was too much to pass up. Her National Merit Scholarship from the University will earn her ,000 over her four years at Nevada.
“Instead of struggling to pay off debts, I&w88 sports betting app;m going to be struggling with what to do with all that money,” she said with a smile. “I think that&w88 sports betting app;s a nice problem to have. UNR is just so loyal to its locals. They&w88 sports betting app;re helping me out so much, I thought it would be the wisest choice.”
Beckman w88 sports betting app she hopes to major in either biochemistry or neuroscience, and would like one day to work as a forensic pathologist.
She said the blend of criminal justice and science would make an intriguing combination for her. Plus, she added, she&w88 sports betting app;s not the squeamish type.
“In seventh grade, as we were doing things like frog dissections, I thought it was really cool,” she said. “I&w88 sports betting app;d like to work for the government as a forensic pathologist. Working for the FBI would be amazing.”
She w88 sports betting app her IB preparation at Wooster should serve her well at Nevada.
“You have to learn to complete all the work at a certain level of quality in a certain amount of time,” she said of her IB studies. “I&w88 sports betting app;ve acquired a certain amount of life experience staying up late at night finishing assignments. IB is basically like normal high school … with a lot more work.”
Beckman good-naturedly downplayed her National Merit status: “I think the main reason why I&w88 sports betting app;m a National Merit Scholar was that the test was so early in the morning and was so long. I think a lot of the kids just wanted to stay home and sleep. Just putting in that extra little effort can make you a lot of money.”
Noah McCoy, a Presidential Scholarship recipient, w88 sports betting app he had originally taken a close look at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Yet the closer he looked at Nevada, the more he was impressed.
&w88 sports betting app;UNR offers a wide variety of majors, whereas Embry-Riddle focuses mainly on aeronautical,” he said. &w88 sports betting app;And the strictly engineering program at UNR is just as good, if not better, than Embry-Riddle.
“I figured I would be getting the same education, if not better, and I&w88 sports betting app;d be near home, near family, and overall, I figured it would be a better choice. UNR is the much more logical choice.”
McCoy said he&w88 sports betting app;s excited about entering Nevada in August as a freshman. The highlight will be how much his current commute will be compressed as he lives on campus.
“I actually live in Fernley, so I drive 80 miles a day,” he said of his weekday drives to Wooster. “It takes about 45 to 50 minutes to get to school. It&w88 sports betting app;s going to be nice living five minutes away from my first class. I&w88 sports betting app;m going to look forward to that the most.”
McCoy, who will major in engineering, said he was impressed by the school&w88 sports betting app;s engineering expertise.
“UNR is the local school, and it just seems like it would be just another state college,” he said. “But it competes nationally in so many things. It has one of the best electrical engineering programs in the entire country. They were actually pioneering some of the classes where you make a device and get a patent on it. We were the first ones to do that. That made me realize that UNR isn&w88 sports betting app;t just another state school – it&w88 sports betting app;s a really good, competing school.”
McCoy said the signing ceremony was a nice way to cap his career at Wooster, though it was a little &w88 sports betting app;strange” to be the center of attention of a press conference and signing attended by local media.
“Normally, you don&w88 sports betting app;t get a whole lot of recognition for academic success,” said McCoy, who hopes to build airplanes and “build things, do things that haven&w88 sports betting app;t been done before.”
“You&w88 sports betting app;re normally not the one up there being singled out,” he said. “Today it was pretty cool to be recognized by the University for academic purposes.”
Cayla Harvey, a Presidential Scholarship recipient, said she was &w88 sports betting app;excited” about entering the University. She added, though, that her parents were probably a bit more nervous about it than she is.
“I think I&w88 sports betting app;m more excited than nervous to start my new schedule and learn about some things that I&w88 sports betting app;m really interested in,” said Harvey, who grew up in the area and transferred from Reed High School in Sparks to Wooster her junior year. “My parents are excited to see me go off to college, but I think they&w88 sports betting app;re more nervous than I am.
She said she was &w88 sports betting app;surprised” by the Signing Day ceremony.
“I thought it was exciting to sign the letter of intent,” she said. “I didn&w88 sports betting app;t expect that. It was nice to meet all the representatives from UNR.”
Harvey plans on having a dual major in international affairs and economics. She said she will live at home for her first two years of college, then make use of the University&w88 sports betting app;s University Studies Abroad program and study overseas her third year of college.
She said she was struck by Nevada&w88 sports betting app;s campus.
“I think it&w88 sports betting app;s a beautiful campus, with tons of beautiful buildings,” she said. “A great place to be.”
Isha Patel, a Presidential Scholarship recipient, chose Nevada over Boston w88 sports betting app, Penn State and UC-San Diego.
Ultimately, she w88 sports betting app, her decision boiled down to staying close to home, saving money and still receiving a quality education.
“I&w88 sports betting app;ve never had a job, and I&w88 sports betting app;ve never really been away from home,” she said. “And my parents are extremely protective. Graduating at 17, going off to a big city like Boston and not knowing anyone, it would be a really big change. So I thought, ‘UNR is a really good campus, with scholarship opportunities, the tuition&w88 sports betting app;s a lot less. Moving out in Reno would be a good middle ground. I&w88 sports betting app;d get that independence from home but at the same time, I&w88 sports betting app;d know the town.&w88 sports betting app; It&w88 sports betting app;s a great campus, too. It&w88 sports betting app;s an absolutely gorgeous campus, and I love the buildings.”
Patel w88 sports betting app she will major in neuroscience, with the hope of one day becoming an oncologist. She w88 sports betting app she is equally excited about her minor: dance.
“I danced when I was younger, and I played volleyball, too,” she said. “I&w88 sports betting app;m a big basketball fan, and thought I could play basketball. It turned out I wasn&w88 sports betting app;t built for basketball. I hurt my knee. I haven&w88 sports betting app;t been able to run.
&w88 sports betting app;I would like to take up dance again. It broke my heart to give it up, so thought I would take it up again and hope that my knee will hold up.”
Like her classmates, she said she was honored to be part of Thursday&w88 sports betting app;s ceremony.
“I wasn&w88 sports betting app;t expecting it to be this big of a deal,” she said, as a mixture of University representatives, Wooster staff and administration, media and parents mingled afterward. “I didn&w88 sports betting app;t know what to expect at first. It was very cool.”
Tim Sweet, a Presidential Scholarship recipient, called Nevada &w88 sports betting app;the perfect choice.”
&w88 sports betting app;They have a great engineering college,” he said. &w88 sports betting app;UNR was exactly what I was looking for.”
Sweet, who plans on majoring in computer science and engineering, said his sister, Jennifer, will graduate from Nevada in December with a degree in international business. He said her experience at Nevada – “She&w88 sports betting app;s loved it” – also helped him decide to enroll at Nevada.
He said he has loved his time at Wooster, which has one of the more diverse student bodies in the Washoe County School District. He said he&w88 sports betting app;s hoping for more of the same at Nevada, which last week graduated its most diverse senior class ever.
“I&w88 sports betting app;ve been to a lot of other campuses in town, and I can tell that Wooster is just so much more diverse,” he said. “The thing about Wooster that we always say is we don&w88 sports betting app;t have cliques here. You don&w88 sports betting app;t see groups of particular demographic together. You&w88 sports betting app;ll see all types of people hanging out together. People who come to campus always comment on that. That&w88 sports betting app;s been a great experience for me.
“Coming here, I&w88 sports betting app;ve seen all the different cultures and experienced all the different ideas and thoughts from my friends.”
Sweet said he plans on living his first year at Nye Hall – &w88 sports betting app;on the Honors Floor.”
&w88 sports betting app;I want to live on campus to have that campus experience … unless I get a job offer for 0,000,” he said, with a grin.
Sweet, showing an enterprising side before Thursday&w88 sports betting app;s ceremony, took the occasion to seek out information regarding the University&w88 sports betting app;s Student Ambassador program from Director of Admissions Steve Maples, who attended Thursday&w88 sports betting app;s ceremony.
Maples encouraged Sweet to apply, and afterward, it was clear why.
“I&w88 sports betting app;ve always said that if I don&w88 sports betting app;t get a job in computer science, then I can get a job as a museum tour guide, because my favorite thing is talking … so I hear that the Student Ambassadors get to do a lot of that,” Sweet said. “I just like knowing what&w88 sports betting app;s going on, and the Student Ambassador program seems like a good way to know what&w88 sports betting app;s going on, on campus and letting other people know about it.”
Then Sweet smiled again. With one dream down – entrance to college – there were obviously many more to be realized, in the coming days and weeks leading up to the start of the fall semester in August.
“I can&w88 sports betting app;t wait,” Sweet said.
