Grand Junction High School senior Terrence Liu received The Gates Scholarship on April 20.
The Gates Scholarship is a prestigious, highly-selective, last-dollar scholarship that rewards high school seniors from lower-income households by covering all other college expenses that are not covered by financial aid. It is awarded to 750 students across the U.S. from historically excluded demographics.
Applicants are required to have a minimum 3.3 GPA, submit essays, extracurricular activity details, academic transcripts and two evaluations from high school teachers.
The scholarship rewards hard working students with the chance to attend competitive, expensive colleges stress free.
“It takes a lot of pressure off of me, and then I can focus on researching and joining extracurricular activities in college,” said Liu.
Liu received the award thirty minutes before being presented with his Seal of Biliteracy in Mandarin and French on April 20.
“I cried…I checked my email and ran all the way back to tell my mom and dad,” said Liu.
Liu plans to attend UC Berkeley, a public research university with an acceptance rate of 11%. He wants to study cellular molecular biology in the fall.
Gabby Ward, a TRIO Upward Bound Advisor, describes Liu as an amazing character.
“He is truly the kindest person…and very humble. You would never guess that he has all of these accomplishments under his belt…He’s just great in every way,” said Ward.
Upward Bound is a college readiness program that helps students from low-income families pursue higher education.
To read more on this, visit Mason Strippel’s opinion article: “TRIO Upward Bound is an upward experience.”
