By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO ACND Prep Senior, Jesus Vasquez has been awarded the prestigious Millenium Gates Scholarship. He is one of the 1,000 recipients from the 30,000 applications received nationwide. Last Fall, he was the first recipient of the Msgr. Kelley Scholarship.
MIAMI- Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School can lay claim to a singular honor: It now has two students who have been selected to receive the Gates Millennium Scholarship.
The honor this year went to senior Jesus Francisco Vasquez. Alumnus Cynthia Massillon, who received the award in 2008, is currently attending Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
The Gates Millennium Scholars Program was established in 1999 and funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Vasquez was selected as one of 1,000 students, out of more than 24,000 applicants, to receive the scholarship this year. He can use it at any U.S. located and accredited college or university; and if he pursues graduate studies in computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science, he may be eligible for a Gates fellowship to pursue masters and doctoral degrees.
Vasquez has a 5.03 GPA and plans to study genetic engineering. He has been accepted to the University of Miami and the University of California and is waiting for responses from California Institute of Technology, Yale, Brown, Harvard, New York University, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and American University.
"When I saw the large envelope, I experienced immense joy. I called my friends and they came over to celebrate," said Vasquez, who had just returned from a senior retreat. "My father saw me at the door with red eyes and said, that's worth crying for and my mother just looked at me with amazement, unable to say anything."
Vasquez is a member of Curley Notre Dames cross-country team, the Knightingales Choir, Mock Trial organization, and recently played one of the lead roles in the schools spring musical, The Sound of Music.
He is enrolled in the honors curriculum and has taken online courses through the Florida Virtual School in honors physics, AP physics and marine science. He also has completed more than 1,000 volunteer service hours over the past three years and recently became director for the Teen Volunteer Department at the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital - Douglas Gardens Hospice.
Last year, Vasquez was the first recipient of the Msgr. Vincent Kelly Scholarship, a $5,000 award that was applied to the cost of high school tuition for his senior year.
Vasquez said he began thinking about becoming a potential Gates Millennium Scholarship recipient since he started high school.
"During my freshman year I always heard about Cynthia Massillon who won the same scholarship in 2008. My English teacher, Mrs. Elman Benjamin, always spoke highly of her and encouraged us to do our best. I was eager to apply for it once the time came and, well, the time came."
Both Vasquez and Massillon were graduates of Catholic elementary schools. Vasquez attended St. Mary Cathedral School and Massillon attended St. James in North Miami.
