Obama scholarship helps student pay for college

Imagine leaving a comfortable life and a family behind to move to a new place with a new language.

Information technology major David Rodriguez did just that when he was 9 years old and left Colombia with just his parents and sister.

His parents both had stable careers: his father a pharmaceutical representative and his mother in the mobile phone business.

"To come here and have nothing was a big shock as a young kid," Rodriguez said.

Leaving a comfortable life for the unknown was hard for his parents, he said. But in the early ‘90s, Colombia had military problems in the economic sector.

"The military was threatening specific people," he said. "They [my parents] were scared for our lives and applied for political asylum and were granted it."

Ten years later, Rodriguez and his family are now citizens; he said it couldn't be more amazing.

Rodriguez's academic career started at a magnet high school – Crooms Academy — known for technology.

"At first I didn't want to go to Crooms because they wear uniforms, [but] I've loved technology since I was young," Rodriguez said. "And every student [who attends Crooms] receives a laptop; you'd never see that in Colombia."

Crooms set Rodriguez on a path for success. After graduating from high school, Rodriguez already had 30 college credits.

Although he said he always knew he'd go to UCF, Seminole State College offered him a full scholarship. He went to SSC for only three semesters before transferring to UCF.

But Rodriguez didn't expect the challenges UCF had in store for him.

For one, UCF didn't offer Rodriguez a scholarship, and because of a residency problem, he wasn't eligible for financial aid.

"It was a big jump," Rodriguez said. "Seeing no support from UCF at all was hard; I literally cried on the phone with this lady from residency."

However, after doing some research, he found the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

According to the HSF website, the fund was created on the belief that the country prospers when all Americans have access to the opportunities a college education can afford, and has awarded more than $335 million in scholarships.

After a year-long process of writing essays and rewriting essays, Rodriguez was one of 12 students nationwide to win the President Barack Obama/Hispanic Scholarship Fund STEM Teacher Scholarship, an award of $2,500 a year for two years. Winners are majors in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Rodriguez said he wasn't expecting the award but is flattered that he won.

"I just didn't think that someone would believe in me enough to award me a scholarship," he said. "I was happy someone took the opportunity to support me financially and to support me in my career and higher education."

Dr. Alejandra Rincón, vice president of programs for HSF, said on average, they receive 100,000 applicants annually and only award 440 scholarships. While Rodriguez remains humble, Rincón said he was beyond qualified.

"I tell this to students: sometimes it's good to be humble when someone is asking about you, but he did a great job telling us about himself," she said. "That's not the time to be humble, when you're competing for a scholarship."

On top of his Obama STEM award, he was also invited to the annual HSF Education Summit and Alumni Gala in New York City on October 24.

Rodriguez said he was honored to be chosen.

"It was a ridiculous and crazy adventure," he said. "I've never traveled by myself."

The summit was held at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Rodriguez said he'd never stayed somewhere so fancy before.

At the summit, alumni came and spoke to inspire scholarship winners to do more in their communities. There were also CEOs of Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and the Treasurer of the United States.

"Being part of the event inspired me to not think abut myself and my school but that I could reach new heights that I couldn't of imagined before," Rodriguez said. "It was really great to be in the same room with amazing people."

Dr. Rincón said Rodriguez was picked for his goals of teaching and giving back to the community.

"STEM has very few Latinos and teaching is one of those professions where Latinos don't have a lot of role models," she said. "Latinos are 20 percent of students in public schools and they don't have anyone like them to look up to."

Rodriguez is a rare breed. Besides being in the technology field, he works part time at Lockheed Martin and is a member of both the Society of Hispanic Engineers and the Colombian Student Association.

He is learning Portuguese to prepare for his upcoming spring semester abroad in Brazil.

"I was thinking of moving out, and my mom wouldn't let me," he said. "She said if I was going to move out I really needed to move out, so that's why I decided to go to Brazil."