Every February, senior athletes get excited for one reason – they are finally eligible to sign their Letter of Intent to their desired college or university.
An athletic signing celebrates all the hard work that the student-athlete has demonstrated throughout the years.
Likewise, Mater Academy hosted its very first Academic Signing in school history on April 19 to celebrate the accomplishments of the school’s top senior scholars.
Among the accomplishments, students were receiving multiple scholarships, getting accepted into Ivy League schools and graduating in the top ten percent of their class.
The event was hosted by the school’s CAP advisor Silvina Macho, who provided students and teachers with food, with the help of the cafeteria staff, and the opportunity to take a Polaroid picture as they signed their Letter of Intent.
A variety of students were celebrated in the event, including one of the most distinguishable scholars – Derek Taylor, the 2016 class Valedictorian who is known by all of his classmates to have exceeded beyond the imaginable.
As a middle and high-school student, Taylor would sit in Florida International University and Miami-Dade College courses and absorb the knowledge without actually being enrolled in the college classes.
His intellect and dedication to his studies has been demonstrated with all of his academic accomplishments.
They included being Mater Academy’s first student to attend Harvard, first to be a National Merit Finalist, third National AP Scholar and accepted into 16 schools, including UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, Stanford and Vanderbilt.
Another student that stood out was Rigel Prieto, who is planning to major in electric engineering following his high school graduation.
In addition to his high school diploma, Prieto will graduate with his Associate’s Degree from Miami-Dade College.
He is recorded in the top ten percent of his graduating class for 2016, a Silver Knight nominee and an FIU Ambassador Scholarship recipient.
In addition, Jennifer Blanco is one of the school’s MDC graduates who will go on to FIU to study marketing and advertising in the fall and is a proud recipient of the Burger King Scholar Award.
Edward Lantz, Mater Academy’s AP English Language teacher, said he is proud to see that all of his students’ hard work and dedication paid off as they were accepted into “such great” universities.
Yesenia Aspuro was another student at the Signing Celebration that has excelled throughout her academic career.
She will be graduating high school with her Associate’s Degree from MDC and go on to major in pre-med.
Her studious habits have allowed her to an AP Scholar and earn a fully paid college tuition at Nova, where she will be living on campus for free.
Assistant principal Maria Mitrani said, “Watching our students graduate, seeing them get accepted to phenomenal schools, celebrating their success, this is why I do my job. It is the most rewarding thing. I am so proud of them. We extend or sincerest congratulations to all of our top scholars and wish them the best of luck with their careers and plans for the future.”