2 North County Students Named 2016 Gates Millennium Scholars
By Quetzal Mama • April 19, 2016
SAN
MARCOS (CA). What are the odds? Two students who are part of a small, grass
roots college prep organization “Quetzal Mama Scholars” were named 2016 Gates
Millennium Scholars. The students –
Ashley Romo of Fallbrook High School and Christina Gaspar of El Camino High
School in Oceanside – received an official notification yesterday from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates Millennium Scholarship provides a
“full ride” by covering any unmet financial aid need, including graduate school
funding.
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| Ashley Romo |
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| Christina Gaspar |
Christina Gaspar
received admission to all eight UC campuses and is currently considering UC Berkeley
or UCLA (majoring in Political Science).
She was also admitted to Bates College and Amherst College. She currently holds a 4.6 GPA and completed
10 Advanced Placement courses. Gaspar also
won the Dell Scholars Award and was one of 25 students nationally to be selected
to the Princeton University Summer Journalism program.
Last March, both students were selected to
the competitive Quetzal Mama Scholars Program.
The program founder, Roxanne Ocampo, aka “Quetzal Mama,” leads a free college
admission coaching program for 20 high school juniors attending eight local
high school districts. It’s free because
the founder believes every student should have the opportunity to receive
technical college knowledge – and not be excluded just because they are socio-economically
disadvantaged, attend low resourced schools, or do not have parents who have
the social capital to help them navigate the complex college admission
landscape.
Ocampo is a full-time college admissions
consultant and a 3rd year Doctoral candidate at UC San Diego. She coaches the Quetzal Mama Scholars
individually (one-on-one) and in group workshop settings to cover every aspect
of the college admissions process. She
has also published four books (English & Spanish) for students and parents
to help them learn about the college admission process.
“My
students are not just learning the basics about college. They learn the technical and “trade secrets”
of college admissions including how to leverage their academic profile with a
short list of colleges, how to persuasively articulate their stories to “nail”
their personal statements, how to obtain an exceptional letters of
recommendation, to prep for ACT and SAT, and to apply to competitive
internships and leadership programs.
—Quetzal Mama
(Roxanne Ocampo)
This past August, Ocampo decided to add a
new component to her coaching series.
She added workshops specifically designed to help her students win
national competitive awards including Questbridge, Dell Scholars, and the Gates
Millennium Scholarship. It’s paid off – two of her students earned the prestigious
Gates Millennium award, one won the Dell Scholars award, and one was a finalist
for Questbridge. She will definitely
include this specialized scholarship training for her future cohorts.
Since the Quetzal Mama Scholars Program
began, 100% of the Scholars in the Program are first generation college
students, socioeconomically disadvantaged (most have family incomes between
$10,000 and $40,000), and are historically underrepresented in higher
education. Ocampo funds this venture on
her own without underwriters, grants, or any other type of financial
assistance. She understands the value of
her services as she successfully coached her own children who earned admission
to every Ivy League campus, and is currently coaching her youngest – a rising
Freshman at San Marcos High School.
If you’d like more information about the
Quetzal Mama Scholars Program, or to learn about Quetzal Mama’s state-wide and
national workshop series for students in K-5, middle school, high school, community
college, and undergraduates pursuing graduate school, go to www.quetzalmama.com.