CORVALLIS, Ore. — Good news arrived for Miriam Egoavil after track practice.
The 18-year-old Madras High School student had just walked to her car and was scrolling through her phone. Then a “congratulations” message appeared in her email inbox, stating that Egoavil had been selected for The Gates Scholarship, a highly competitive national scholarship that will cover her remaining cost of attendance at Oregon State University this fall.
“I actually jumped up and down,” Egoavil said. “I wish I could have hugged someone, but there was no one there.”
She immediately called her mother, teasing her at first.
“So do you think I got it? Do you think I didn’t?”
Once Egoavil shared the news, she could tell by her mom’s voice that she was just as excited as Egoavil was.
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"Just apply no matter what, because you never know. That might be the scholarship that you might win and might actually help shape your future."
More than 200 miles away in Tillamook County, Noe Lopez-Solis experienced a similar life-changing moment.
After sports practice, the Nestucca High School senior sat exhausted in his car checking his email, almost falling asleep, when he learned he had received a scholarship from The Ford Family Foundation. The scholarship will cover his cost of attendance as he begins studying aerospace engineering at Oregon State this fall.
Lopez-Solis took the news calmly at first. His family did not.
“I told my mom, and she's kind of freaking out. My dad didn't even know what that meant. Because they haven't gone to college, they don't know how crazy that is. They don't know how much college costs,” Lopez-Solis said. “It didn't really hit me until I thought about how expensive college costs.”
For both incoming first-year students who are first-generation students, the scholarships are the result of years of hard work and support from the people around them, including their experiences with the Juntos program.
Juntos means “together” in Spanish. It’s a bilingual program of the OSU Extension Service that engages families in college and career exploration through family workshops, student clubs and mentoring.
Finding confidence through Juntos
Egoavil first encountered Juntos through her older sister, Elizabeth, one of the first students to participate when the program came to Madras.
“I saw how beneficial it was for her, and so I decided to join Juntos, and then it helped me a lot through the college application process and everything,” Egoavil said.
She attended Academia Juntos, a summer program on the OSU campus, for two consecutive years. There, she explored various academic subjects and careers, discovering an interest in science and engineering. Team activities also gave her opportunities to recognize her own leadership abilities.
David Gutierrez, Egoavil’s Juntos coordinator, remembers encouraging Egoavil to step out of her comfort zone many times.
“She was just a shy little girl, so Academia Juntos was something I had to push her to do,” Gutierrez said. “And then after the Academia, she's like, ‘David, you're right. This camp was worth it.’”
That confidence followed Egoavil through a demanding high school journey. She competed in cross country, volleyball and track and field while participating extensively in band, playing flute and piccolo and sometimes alto saxophone. She qualified for state competitions in both athletics and music.
Gutierrez watched her take on that workload while continually seeking new opportunities.
“She was doing as many scholarships and applications as possible, and she was doing the max workload her whole high school years,” he said. “You could always tell us this young girl was just very smart and gonna go places.”
“She is very humble and unselfish,” Gutierrez added. “She earned the votes to be Juntos Club president, but didn’t accept due to her workload and recognized other students' greater interest in the position.”
This fall, Egoavil will enter the Honors College and plans to major in biology while continuing her passion for music as a minor or double major. She hopes eventually to work in biotechnology and contribute to solutions for diseases.
Earlier in her senior year, OSU awarded Egoavil its Presidential Scholarship, the university’s most prestigious and competitive scholarship for incoming students. The award provides up to $10,000 annually and is renewable for four years, for a total of up to $40,000.
Then came The Gates Scholarship.
The highly competitive national scholarship is a last-dollar award that covers the remaining cost of attendance not already met by other financial aid. Only two students in Oregon received it out of more than 61,000 applicants nationwide.
“It removes the financial burden that I had to go through,” Egoavil said. “And I can fully focus on my studies and the person that I'm trying to build and explore the potential that I have within myself.”
From a childhood fascination to a career goal
Lopez-Solis’ dream of studying aerospace engineering began with superheroes.
Growing up, he watched Iron Man and Spider-Man and became fascinated by the technology on screen, even attempting to build his own web shooter. As he got older, that curiosity shifted toward real-world engineering and space exploration. He began following NASA missions and livestreams and now dreams of working in aerospace.
“I want to build stuff that makes headlines and tell my family that ‘yeah, I'm a rocket scientist,’” Lopez-Solis said.
Juntos helped him see more possibilities for turning that curiosity into a career. Through program activities and visits to OSU, Lopez-Solis learned about dorm life, college and careers ranging from forest entomology to fisheries and bird research. His Juntos coordinator, Nat Macías, encouraged him to reach out to José Moreno Hernández, a former NASA astronaut, to ask about his experiences and recommendations.
At Academia Juntos, he also met scholarship ambassadors from The Ford Family Foundation. Its scholarship programs assist people in Oregon and Siskiyou County, California.
“I'm like, wow, these people are going to school for free. That’s kind of crazy,” he recalled.
Lopez-Solis initially doubted he would be one of them. He was not the top student in his class and did not have a 4.0 GPA. But repeated encouragement from his school counselor, along with support from Macías, persuaded him to apply.
Macías said Lopez-Solis approaches opportunities with unusual persistence. He placed fourth in an international bridge-building competition in Chicago, participated in wrestling and track, and helped start a soccer program at his high school. During Juntos Afuera, an outdoor education program in Tillamook County, he was always the last student to stay after class to ask instructors more questions about physics, remotely operated vehicles and soldering techniques.
Beyond his personal achievements in academics and extracurricular activities, Lopez-Solis is a kind friend who brings his peers together.
“He's always made sure everyone is included and has offered up their thoughts or ideas as well,” Macías said. “So he's very good at that whole team-building.”
The scholarship has supported Lopez-Solis’ college preparation in many ways, including providing funds for technology needed for his studies.
With up to $2,000 available for computer expenses, Lopez-Solis purchased a brand-new iPad and recently consulted with Macías about what app he should download for note-taking and studying.
Now Lopez-Solis is preparing for a campus where, for the moment, he knows only his roommate.
“Nobody from my school is going,” he said. “But I'm excited to meet new people, make new connections and really jumpstart my career hopefully.”
Egoavil is preparing for that transition, too. Coming from the small community of Madras, she said Juntos helped make the next step feel less intimidating.
For younger students considering opportunities that may seem out of reach, Egoavil encourages them to be brave and try.
“Just apply,” she said. “When I first applied, I did not have that much confidence in getting this, but just apply no matter what, because you never know. That might be the scholarship that you might win and might actually help shape your future.”
