This year The Omniscient has been following three seniors, Monte Smith, Diane Thompson and Pedro Becquer-Ramos, on their journeys through senior year as they prepare to graduate and attend college. This is part two of the three-part series. To see the beginning of these students’ stories, go to www.nhsomniscient.com.
Diane Thompson
“After riding 45 minutes from Pittsboro to Northern Durham, I really had to use the restroom, so I decided that I would go to the restroom. Just keep in mind that I had been continuously checking my email all day awaiting an email from the scholarship program,” Thompson said. “So I went to pee and I was just refreshing [the page] because I’m bored on the toilet and I saw that I had a notification, so I saw it and it said “Congratulations” and I just started screaming… I probably scared the whole soccer team.”
On March 8, just after arriving to Northern Durham for her soccer game, Thompson found out she was a Morehead-Cain scholar, while on the toilet.
“I had to get Maria [Vanderford] to double check it and see if it really said ‘Congratulations’ so I wasn’t just imagining it, then I called my mom and started crying,” Thompson said.
Thompson and 63 others around the world have been chosen from over 2,200 initial applicants and is the first female in Northwood’s history to get the scholarship.
“It just felt good to get rewarded for all of my hard work all four years. I didn’t realize how good of a school Carolina was until I heard more about it,” Thompson said. “I’m numb, very numb. I don’t know how to react. I didn’t expect to get this far.”
The Morehead-Cain scholarship is a four-year merit scholarship that includes full tuition, student fees, housing, meals, books, laptop and supplies; it also includes a four-year summer enrichment program.
Mathematically speaking, Thompson is in the top 3 percent of the original pool of applicants and had a 45 percent chance of getting the Morehead-Cain scholarship out of only 122 applicants in the final round.
For the final round, Thompson toured the campus with current Morehead-Cain scholars, heard feedback from previous scholars and had two 20 minute interviews.
“Basically, I had to sell myself. If you asked me on Monday how [the interviews] went I would have said great, but on Friday if you asked me how they went, I probably would have said awful,” Thompson said. “I was thinking about it more and all the stuff I could have said wrong. I guess [the interviews] went pretty well considering I got the scholarship.”
Recently, Thompson was also awarded a Coca-Cola scholarship which guarantees $2,000 per year. Since Thompson got the Morehead-Cain scholarship, that money will most likely be directed to miscellaneous expenses and graduate school.
Although originally leaning toward out-of-state schools, Thompson says she will be attending UNC because of the scholarship, and if she didn’t, “My dad would kill me.”
Monte Smith
Smith, who once aspired to play Division I football, is now looking at Division II or III schools because he missed more than half of his senior season due to his torn meniscus injury.
“[My injury is] doing good; it’s holding up pretty well. I just make sure I don’t go too hard because I’m trying to make sure I’ll be able to play football,” Smith said. ”It felt really good when I came back. I played really well and I had a lot of tackles, no interceptions though, just a lot of tackles.”
Smith has applied to Wesleyan College, Wingate University, Methodist University, East Carolina University, UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte. So far, he has gotten accepted into ECU and UNC-G, and won’t know about the other schools until April 1.
“It felt really good [when I got accepted] because I have been waiting for it for so long,” Smith said. “I kept thinking maybe I didn’t get in. I kept going to the counseling office and my first [acceptance] was from UNC-G. My mom and grandparents were all really excited for me.”
Competing with healthy athletes was a big challenge that Smith faced when college programs tried to scout him.
“I didn’t have a lot of stats to send in, so I had competition with other people that had stats and I didn’t,” Smith said. “[Coaches] told me I could probably walk on and not have a scholarship, or I could go to a D-2 school and have a half scholarship and half education.”
At the moment, Smith says his top choice school is UNC-C because it has a new football program.
“I talked to my coaches to see if I had a chance or not to make the football team, and they feel like I have a good chance,” said Smith about his prospects as a walk-on. “I feel like as a football program it would be good, because they’re starting off new.”
Smith is still “110 percent” sure he will be playing college football and that nothing will let him fall short of that dream.
“My thoughts [on the future] are going to a good college to play football, still, even though I don’t know where I’m going to end up.”
Pedro Becquer-Ramos
“I think about the things I do today, tomorrow and the things I will be doing in a year. I’m kind of optimistic about it, I always have been,” Becquer-Ramos said about his future. “I know my potential, and it just keeps increasing; there has been a trend.”
Becquer-Ramos has applied and been accepted into UNC-G, ECU, Appalachian State, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill. He is still waiting to hear from Duke and Davidson.
ECU was the first school he got accepted to.
“When I went to my profile and it had the letter, I was really nervous,” Becquer-Ramos said. “The server was really busy so I had to try logging in like 100 times and every time I thought I was going to get a message. [My parents] knew I was going to get in. They were more confident than I was.”
Becquer-Ramos has been accepted into ECU’s honors college, which will pay for all of his tuition. He says that he is now more closely considering ECU because of the “good financial package.”
Last weekend he received a letter in the mail awarding him $4,000 for any college from the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals.
“It’s definitely something that I think about everyday,” Becquer-Ramos said. “Right now all I’m thinking about is scholarships. I’m pretty excited for what’s coming up for me.”
Becquer-Ramos has a tough decision ahead of him. He ultimately wants to go to the best school and not base it on money.
“I want to go to the better school because, either way I’m going to apply for private scholarships to pay for my schooling. I mean, I just think the opportunities are better,” Becquer-Ramos said. “I’m still considering all of them, but I would feel more comfortable studying engineering at State.”
— By Ally DeJong