Surrounded by her classmates, STEM Academy senior Abigail Paredes was congratulated last week for being named a National Hispanic Recognition Award winner. This comes through the College Board National Recognition Programs.
The 17-year-old senior is hoping to attend either Hawaii Pacific or Hawaii University Manoa to major in marine biology.
Criteria for eligible students include a GPA of 3.5 or higher; PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 assessment scores that are within the top 10 percent of assessment takes in each state for each award program or earned a score of 3 or higher on 2 or more AP Exams in 9th and 10th grade.
They must attend school in a rural area or small town, or identify as African American/Black, Hispanic American/Latino or Indigenous/Native, a news release said.
“Any student that is working as hard as Abigail does on daily work, on leading her fellow classmates, on commitment to the score deserves recognition,” Secondary Principal Cody Griffin said.
Griffin added that this is another example of hard work paying off for Paredes.
“She’s pretty spectacular. We’re proud of all of our kids. But Abigail’s hard work for this National Hispanic Merit Scholarship is pretty fantastic,” he added.
Griffin said Paredes is really quiet, but she is a servant leader.
“For the last two years, she has helped lead National Honor Society. She worked really hard at leading by serving her classmates. That means that if National Honor Society has different activities coming up, or different events, she’s always the first one to ask, ‘How do I need to prepare for this? How do I get this accomplished?’ She’s done that. She helped lead National Honor Society through spaghetti fundraiser last year. She’s heading up the alumni and junior-senior burger feed prior to the flag football game that we have annually. She’s working really hard,” Griffin said.
Paredes, who is from Odessa, said she’s always had a passion for animals and the ocean.
“I’ve always really liked watching the documentaries where they release the animals back into the wild and I thought that would be something really cool to be a part of,” she added.
Paredes said she was shocked by winning the National Hispanic Recognition Award because it is a “really big honor.”
“I think it’ll help other kids in the community strive for something and realize that they can do something good, too,” she added.
Paredes was the Miss Permian Basin runner-up this year at the Permian Basin Fair and got a $1,500 scholarship.
She has been president of the National Honor Society for two years and was the secretary before that. She was also the fundraising chair for Student Council last year. They also received the National Gold Council of Excellence from the National Student Council.
“I’ve just really liked being able to lead all of my classmates and helping them out and just getting our name out there more,” Paredes said.
The spaghetti fundraiser conducted for the National Honor Society raises money so they can pay their dues and keep the chapter open.
“That was always really fun to run, but this was the first year that I was able to actually be more hands-on because I was plugged in, got to see the behind-the-scenes stuff and I helped place all of our orders. When I got there, I helped set up all the stations and get it running, just so that we’d have a smooth experience and it was pretty good. We raised quite a bit of money,” Paredes said.
Paredes has been attending STEM Academy since it opened 10 years ago.
“I think the school is really unique in the way that it has project-based learning, or PBL. I think it’s like a really good program for kids to be more hands-on and take pride in their own learning, rather than just being stuck at a desk all day and not being able to move. I like that it gives us the opportunity to get college credit, and this year, we’re going to have the opportunity to get an associate degree, so I’m hoping that I can go for that, too,” she added.
Paredes has an older sister, Anaya Paredes, and a younger brother, Xavier Sanchez. She’s hoping her brother will follow her lead and do his best in school.
Her advice to other students is: “Work hard and even if it seems discouraging just keep trying, keep studying and it’ll eventually all pay off” and work out for the best.
Paredes’ grandmother, Mary Munoz, attended the celebration last Thursday.
“We were just … ecstatic about her being the young lady that she has turned out to be. She has always strived to do her best. Always. She’s succeeding. She’s very goal-oriented. She’s got her goals set and she’s going for it,” Munoz said.
Eligible students are invited to apply on BigFuture during their sophomore or junior year and are awarded at the start of the next school year in time to share their achievements in high school as they plan for the future. At the same time, colleges and organizations using the College Board’s Student Search Service can connect directly with awardees during the recruitment process, the release said.
