by Katie Parkinson

Senior Nikki Rodriguez was recently named a National Hispanic Scholar. This honor is accorded to students who achieve high scores on their junior year PSAT, and who are at least one-quarter Hispanic/Latino, according to the College Board website.

“I found out [I was a National Hispanic Scholar] maybe early this September,” Rodriguez said. “Ms. [Debi] Hudson contacted me and said I might be eligible, and they just needed to certify that my GPA was over a certain point.”

According to College Board, a 3.0 GPA is required to be eligible for this program.

Each year, around 5,000 students are named National Hispanic Scholars out of about 235,000 Hispanic/Latino students who take the PSAT.

According to college counselor Debi Hudson, typically one or two STA students are named National Hispanic Scholar per year.

“I was shocked, definitely, [about being named a National Hispanic Scholar],” Rodriguez said. “I was really surprised because it was so long after [I applied] that I really forgot about it, but I was really flattered.”

As a National Hispanic Scholar, there are many scholarships available for colleges.

Rodriguez is applying to Kansas University, University of Dallas, Loyola University New Orleans, Loyola Marymount University, Texas Christian University, Tulane University, Stanford University and University of Southern California.