GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jaylynne Calderon-Monterosso didn’t think she would win the Gates Scholarship, founded by billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates. After submitting her application, she double-checked it and saw that she repeated a sentence. So, she sighed and assumed she’d been nixed.
However, her luck changed a few weeks ago when she was on a class trip to Washington, D.C. and she learned, after multiple essays and an interview, she won.
“It was amazing,” Calderon-Monterosso said with a big smile. “I was shocked at first when I first found out. And then I also like cried a lot about it.”
This is Jaylynne Calderon-Monterosso.
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) May 24, 2023
She was one of the 51,000 students nationwide who applied for the competitive Gates Scholarship.
She’s 1 of the 750 who won.
And, her lasting legacy: creating a social-emotional room for her peers at @UPrepGR of @GRPublicSchools @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/o1n5UiCgKJ
Calderon-Monterosso told her sister, who was with her on the trip. She then called her parents, the teachers who wrote her recommendation letters, and her principal Kenyatta Hill-Hall.
“I am so proud of her,” said Hill-Hall, principal of Grand Rapids University Prepatory Academy. “I like to tell people all the time I’m like the mama of the school. And so just like any mother, I’m a proud mama of her hard work, determination.”
Calderon-Monterosso said 51,000 students applied nationwide. In the end, only 750 were awarded. Now she’s headed to the University of Notre Dame in the fall, and won’t have to worry about tuition.
She’s said it’s the least she can do for her parents, who sacrificed for her and her siblings after immigrating to the U.S. from Guatemala years ago before she was born.
She detailed their journey in her Gates Scholarship essay.
“I remember writing about how growing up with my dad, I would go on Facebook and Craigslist and I would go and look for unwanted appliances or things like we could fix like lawnmowers, refrigerators,” she recalled. “And then I remember talking about how my dad taught me how to do it. He taught me some of the electrical work. And then we’d like go pick up things. We’d fix them or we’d give them to the scrap metal and then like with that cash, we use them to pay for bills.”
She said as a ninth-grader, she was anxious often and didn’t join any extra-curricular activities. However, her parents remained her motivation to succeed.
“She has a resiliency about her that carries from her family background and upbringing that she has brought to the school,” principal Hill-Hall said. “Her advocacy, we’ve seen that in National Honor Society, in being the class president, even being part of the Mayor’s Youth Council. We’ve seen that work with her and her peers.”
Hill-Hall recalled the time Calderon-Monterroso approached her about creating a social-emotional room for her peers as classes resumed after the pandemic. She created a survey asking classmates how they were feeling and learned that many were having a tough time. So, once Hill-Hall approved and Steelcase gave grant money, she got started on the room.
“She did research like ‘Oh, we need to have plants because having something green is important,'” Hill-Hall said. “We want colorful posters and words of encouragement.”
That’s exactly what happened. When FOX 17 visited the room, they saw a few students chatting with one another and another studying. Plants decorated the room while students' artwork hung on the walls.
Now, the room is Calderon-Monterroso’s lasting legacy. And, she hopes her peers feel inspired to succeed.
“I did it like through the support of my family,” she said. “Being able to have something to rely on or something that’s motivating you can really help a lot.”
