MISD Senior Gets Full Ride to College Through Grades and Grit
obstacles to pursue their educations. Designees receive
$20,000 in scholarship money, a laptop computer,
textbook credits, and ongoing emotional support.
When the 17-year-old found out that she had been
chosen, she couldn’t believe it.
“I was like ‘oh my goodness! $20,000 is so much,’”
Sutton recalled. “I can now have a better life than the
one I was given. My future’s going to be better.”
Katlyn Sutton applied to become a Dell Scholar through her
AVID class.
K
atlyn Sutton knew she wanted to go to college; she
just didn’t know how she’d be able to pay for it.
The Timberview High School senior has four sisters,
and her family was struggling to make ends meet.
To make financial matters worse, Sutton started
suffering from escalated symptoms of Chiari
malformation, a defect in the back of the head where
the brain and spine meet. It was causing her to
experience blackouts, heart palpitations, numbness,
and sleep paralysis. She needed brain surgery to help
alleviate those problems.
Sutton applied for The University of Texas at
Arlington and was able to get enough money for her
college tuition through grants and other scholarships.
The money from the Dell Scholars Program will
allow her to live on campus and save up for a possible
master’s degree.
The senior wants to encourage other students in her
situation to not give up and continue to apply themselves.
“It’s possible,” said Sutton. “I didn’t think I would.
Sometimes you’ll feel intimidated, but it’s truly worth
it in the end.”
“I felt really awful about it because I knew we couldn’t
afford the surgery, but the surgery was something I
needed to function properly,” said Sutton. “We already
couldn’t afford groceries and things like that, so it
worsened the financial burden.”
Sutton didn’t let her situation determine her future. She
kept working hard in her classes, maintained a 3.81
GPA, and scored high on the SAT and ACT college
entrance exams.
As a requirement for her AVID class at Timberview
High, Sutton applied to become a Dell Scholar. Dell
Scholars are students who have overcome significant
AVID State Director, Patrick Briggs, congratulated Sutton for earning
the scholarship.
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