GSMST student awarded scholarship from Amazon

     Valeria Ramos-Lira, a senior at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (GSMST), is headed to college with the help of a major scholarship from Amazon. Valeria has been named a recipient of the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship, a nationally competitive award that supports students pursuing degrees in engineering, computer science, or other related fields.

“When I won the scholarship, my first thought was ‘my parents no longer have to pay for my college,’” Valeria says.

     Valeria plans to study Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Valeria grew up in trailer parks and saw how much effort her parents put into working extra landscaping jobs over an hour away, to pay another $100 for rent or groceries. As the oldest daughter, she took care of her brothers, worked, maintained her grades, and still found time to get involved in school activities. She says attending college was important to her and her family, but it always had the weight of how much it would cost.

     “This scholarship showed me that my hard work paid off and my parents no longer have to carry that financial burden,” Valeria adds. “Being an Amazon Future Engineer reminds me that I do have a place in the computer science field, and no one can take that away from me.”

     Ben Schepens, Valeria’s Computer Science Teacher, says she is very intelligent and diligent in her work. She is very dedicated to truly learning from each assignment, not merely focused on a score or grade.

     “More importantly, [Valeria] demonstrates true leadership character, which is considerably rare in our world,” Schepens adds. “Valeria is just as focused on helping those around her be successful as she is on being successful herself. She chooses to live each day with integrity.”   

     Valeria is one of two students to receive the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship this year. McClure Health Science High School senior Jasmine Osorio also earned the award.