Thanks to a full ride scholarship, one Castle Hill native is leaving her home borough to pursue her undergraduate degree. Sophia Tavarez hopes this move is just the first of many opportunities to travel abroad and explore the world while studying at Michigan State University’s Honor College.
Tavarez graduated from the Bronx High School of Science —the only of nine designated specialized high schools within the New York City system in the Bronx— this spring. Admission to these schools is primarily determined through the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), a competitive exam which many children often begin preparing for well in advance.
“My mom went to Brooklyn Tech[nichal High School] way back in the ‘90s. She was kind of familiar with the process, that’s how I got introduced to it. I also did the DREAM program,” Tavarez said.
The DREAM program provides detailed exam preparation for the SHSAT to eligible seventh-grade students in New York City. Though she was thankful for this program and had a great experience at the Bronx High School of Science, Tavarez said at first she struggled with the school’s large size.
“I graduated [middle school with] 30 kids and then went to a school where there’s 750 in my grade. So it was pretty difficult to adapt to the new surroundings. That’s just what I remember a lot from freshman year. Honestly, I made most of my friends through debate,” Tavarez said.
Even though they all quit the debate team after one year, she says her and her friends remained close throughout all four years of high school. Tavarez found other extracurricular opportunities, including teaching science lessons to middle school students, working as a student docent at the high school’s Holocaust Museum & Studies Center, as well as attending free Broadway shows as part of an alumni-funded arts and culture initiative.
As the oldest of four kids, Tavarez describes herself as a bit of a “guinea pig” when it came to touring universities, which started relatively early for her.
“I think the first school I visited was the University of Chicago, the summer after I graduated eighth grade, just because we happened to be in Chicago. We did a lot of college tours. We did all types of schools; we did small liberal arts, big school spirit, we did a bunch of SUNY’s,” Tavarez said.
Ultimately two things stood out as particularly important to selecting a college for her: their representative and the scholarships they offered.
“I really narrowed down where I wanted to go just based on talking to representatives at college fairs. So some of the schools I chose were solely because I really liked their representative,” Tavarez said.
Out of thousands of incoming Michigan State University students, Tavarez is only one of 51 recipients of the prestigious Williams Scholarship.
According to a university representative, “The scholarship sponsors up to eight consecutive semesters of undergraduate enrollment, including tuition, fees, food and housing, and a single $7,500 experiential education stipend.”
Ahead of her first fall semester, Tavarez’s educational experiences have already begun.
“I actually just got back from a study abroad trip to Italy. They have something called First-Year Seminar Abroad; my group was about 30 kids, and we were split into 2 different classes. I took a class on Italian fairy tales that was very interesting. We had to be at class at a certain time, but other than that, you were allowed free reign to explore. I would recommend that for any other Michigan state students,” Tavarez explained.
Michigan State University’s study abroad program made it a particularly appealing choice for Tavarez, who looks forward to studying abroad as much as possible during her undergraduate studies. Academically, she plans to major in Economics while potentially minoring in History; both fields that she finds notably important in understanding the world around her.
“Last year, in my AP US History class, we ended the year with a focus on the Bronx, so we watched a documentary about the fires in the Bronx in the ‘70s. I was like, ‘Oh, I knew a lot of kids with asthma growing up, that’s where that comes from,” Tavarez said.
Maurice Burbridge is an intern at the Bronx Times. He can be reached at mburbridge@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
