Disbelief.
That’s what Ian Matos-Sosa, a student at Destrehan High School, said he felt when he heard the news: he received a $354,008 scholarship to attend Emory University in Atlanta.
Matos-Sosa learned in January that he earned a QuestBridge scholarship, a needs-base scholarship that covers tuition and fees. QuestBridge connects high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with education, career and life opportunities, according to the organization’s website.
Matos-Sosa said he never expected to be a finalist for the scholarship. When he received the news at school, he immediately called his mom.
“I told her, ‘Mama, they are giving us everything, no more struggle,’” he said.
Matos-Sosa said that for seven years of his life he endured immense poverty and frequent homelessness. But, he said, God heard his voice and prayer.
“His mercy terminated all the poverty, homelessness, abusiveness,” he said. “For most of my life, I grew up in shady places encompassed by bad influences, but my mother did everything in her power to keep me safe. She turned our life around. I can now be the young boy who pursues his dreams.”
Matos-Sosa said he wants to study biochemistry at Emory University. He wants to cure Alzheimer’s, a disease his grandfather endured.
“He passed away in my late adolescence,” Matos-Sosa said. “[His passing was] the heaviest weight in my life. In my eyes, that is a father, the only one I ever had. Instead of plummeting into depression, I knew from my heart that he was up there, watching me.”
Matos-Sosa is on the soccer, cross country and track teams at Destrehan. He is also a member of the National Honor Society, the National Spanish Honor Society, the National English Honor Society and a school ambassador. He said his advice to others is that we are all bound together by difficulties and by sacrifice.
“No matter the severity, each person is the sculptor of their own sculpture,” he said.
