Tyler Vega Pascua, a senior at Lanai High and Elementary School, was one of 1,000 recipients chosen this year. The scholarship means Pascua will have a free ride all the way through her doctorate should she choose to pursue an advanced degree.
More than 52,000 students applied — one of the most competitive candidate groups in the foundation’s 14-year history, according to a press release.
Applicants must have a 3.3 minimum grade point average and submit eight written essays on their leadership experience, goals, challenges they’ve faced and why they should be selected for the scholarship. The application is 21 pages total.
Pascua serves as her school’s student body president and volunteers for its College + Career Network, an initiative to help students pursue post-high school opportunities and later return to Lanai to work in high-tech, high-paying jobs.
She is attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas this fall as a first-generation college student. Pascua plans on becoming a nurse and returning to Lanai to work at Lanai Community Hospital.
Pascua joins a noteworthy cohort of small-town, Hawaii-born students to receive the scholarship, which is aimed at providing outstanding minority students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any area of interest. The students may then request funding for a graduate program in one of several discipline areas: computer science, education, engineering library science, mathematics, public health or science.
Just next door to Lanai, Maui’s rural Hana High has helped transform six students — three each in 2012 and 2013 — into Gates Millennium scholars.
Read Civil Beat’s past coverage:
Hana High School Girls Earn ‘Life-Changing’ Gates Millennium Scholarships
Three Hana High Seniors Win Prestigious Gates Scholarships
Photo: Lanai High’s Tyler Vegas Pascua. (Courtesy of Pulama Lanai)
— Alia Wong
