| 3/3/2009 3:05:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Sanya Arias, a D.C. Opportunity Scholarship student, is now a top member of the senior class at Archbishop Carroll High School. |
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Carroll student says Opportunity Scholarship has inspired her to 'want to succeed' in life
Sanya Arias, a D.C. Opportunity Scholarship student, said attending Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington has helped her get a "strong grip" on her Catholic faith.
Arias, a senior, said attending a Catholic school has helped her realize, "You don't necessarily need to be this grand disciple to be a follower of God." Arias said the service activities at Archbishop Carroll have helped mold her into a "wholesome and unselfish person."
"I am very grateful for what I have," she said. "If I didn't have the Opportunity Scholarship, I probably wouldn't be the same person." The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program gives low-income families the ability to choose a non-public school for their children by providing them with monetary assistance from the federal government. More than 1,700 children are now receiving the scholarships, with about half of them attending Catholic schools in the District.
This week, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program faces a key hurdle, as the Senate considers an appropriations bill that could phase out the popular program next year. (See related article, editorial and action alert on pages 8, 10 and 11.)
hope for future
Arias, who lives in Adams Morgan, said some of the friends she went to middle school with who now attend public high school speak using profanities, and aren't making progress academically. Arias said in middle school she started "slacking off," and she would have probably followed her friends' path if she didn't receive the scholarship to attend private school.
At Archbishop Carroll there are high academic standards, and every student strives for success, she said. When she arrived to the school, Arias said she had to take basic algebra while most students who had previous private school education were already taking algebra I or algebra II.
But the strict academic atmosphere made her "want to succeed. You want to catch up. In middle school I didn't care ... Here all of my friends work at such a high level. You wanted to be where they were."
Now Arias has a 3.95 GPA, she is vice president of her class, captain of the soccer team, a player on the lacrosse team, president of the International Club and a peer minister.
mother's thanks
Hilda Amancio, Arias' mother who is from the Dominican Republic, said, "The scholarship has been able to give my daughter an opportunity to go to a Catholic private school and learn in an environment that is safer, academic(s) are enforced more, and the teachers and staff's goals are to see the students succeed in life."
Amancio said her "greatest inspiration" was seeing her daughter succeed in high school and seeing how "delighted she is to go onto college and succeed."
But if Arias did not receive the scholarship, Amancio said she would not have the money to send her to Archbishop Carroll.
"I don't have money to afford sending Sanya to Archbishop Carroll ... I only work part-time, and I am a single parent, so it is hard to gather money to have at home, less raise about $9,000 or more a year to send her to school," she said.
Amancio added that although her daughter was "fond" of the previous public schools she attended, she was not achieving her full potential as a student.
Arias said it "shakes me up a bit" to think how her life would have been if she didn't come to Archbishop Carroll.
"Other students should have the opportunity that I've had ... so parents can see their child succeed where the academics are stricter and the teachers really do care," she said.
Next year, Arias said she wants to attend either St. John's University in New York or The University of Maryland in College Park. She said she plans on working toward a double major in psychology and English.
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