Harmony Public Schools announced that Carlos Chavez, a senior at Harmony School of Innovation Brownsville, has been named a QuestBridge National College Match finalist.
Chavez is one of 6,885 students selected from among 18,000 applicants as 2020 National College Match finalists, the organization said in a news release.
“We are extraordinarily pleased and proud of Carlos,” said Bilgehan Yasar, area superintendent for the Harmony San Antonio district that includes Brownsville, Laredo and San Antonio.
QuestBridge is a college and application process that helps academically outstanding low-income high school seniors gain admission and full four-year scholarships to 39 of the nation’s most selective colleges and universities. QuestBridge partner colleges include Yale University, CalTech, Rice University, MIT, and Columbia University, among many others.
Chavez’s top four university choices were MIT, the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Stanford University in California and Rice University in Houston.
Chavez learned about QuestBridge from a friend who told him that the program could offer him a full ride to partner universities, at which time Chavez set his mind to becoming a QuestBridge scholar, began the application process and submitted it before the Sept. 29 deadline.
“After waiting for nearly a month I received an email from QuestBridge. As I opened up the email and I logged into my account to check my status, I found out that I was being congratulated on being a finalist. I got up and immediately told my mom’” Chavez exclaimed.
“We were both excited with the news and my mom started to get teary eyed as she congratulated me for my hard work and accomplishment of becoming a finalist,” he added.
Chavez prepared by taking dual credit and AP courses that required more challenging work and extra study, making sure that he passed these classes with high grades in preparation for university life. “Harmony assisted me with my academic study pathway by providing me with experience and insight with the engineering courses they offer that will assist me in my future,” Chavez said.
Along with taking these courses, he also participated in many school clubs and activities in the engineering field.
“These universities have strong engineering programs and my educational and career interest is to become a mechanical or astronautical engineer,” Chavez added.
Two students attending the Harmony campus in Laredo, were also named finalists.
