GWU Eases Students' Path To Education
9 Seniors Win Full Ride Worth $200,000 Each

By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006

Oscar Garibay didn't even think of college for himself. His dad, who had gone through only fifth grade in Mexico, understood hard work but didn't know how important an education could be. And Garibay, one of nine children with never enough to go around, was just glad to survive childhood, he said.

Yesterday, he stood in his son's high school with students crowded around the George Washington University admissions officer to hear who had won a four-year full scholarship to GWU. The officer got only as far as "Ricky" before people in the room erupted in screams and cheers.

Garibay, a big, burly D.C. police officer, turned away and cried.

Ricky Garibay and Terri Li, seniors at the School Without Walls, were the first two students yesterday to be offered Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarships, worth about $200,000 each.

Thaddisa Fulwood, assistant director of admissions at GWU, and the school mascot, in his frock coat and little sneakers, swept into District high schools to surprise Ian Cooper and Sherryl Grant at Benjamin Banneker, Darcy Jones-Duberry at Ballou, Wendy Soriano at Bell Multicultural, Brittney Wright at Eastern, Leticia Tientcheu at Roosevelt and Asad Mahmood at Woodrow Wilson.

All across the region, students are getting admissions decisions and -- sometimes just as critical -- answers on scholarships and financial aid.

At the University of Virginia recently, clinical nursing students were surprised when professors came into the classroom with blue and orange balloons and announced a fellowship of more than $1 million. In-state students get $10,000 a year, and out-of-state ones get $17,000 for the rest of their two-year program. Some of the top students got an extra $5,000, to be deposited into their bank accounts.

"I almost cried," said nursing student Becky Gamon of Louisa, Va.

Some local colleges prefer to spread their aid money around rather than making a big splash with a few scholarships.

But 17 years ago, Trachtenberg, GWU's president, thought people in the city saw the university as "in Washington but not of Washington."

He started the scholarships, which are now a small piece of the overall financial aid but an important element in the school's sometimes warm, often contentious relationship with the city.

On his 10th anniversary, the board of trustees named the scholarship after him.

The school isn't cheap. Tuition alone is more than $36,000 this year.

Ricky Garibay, 17, was worried about how his parents could pay for his education. When his name was called out and a GWU cap was put on his head, he looked overwhelmed, rubbing his hand over his eyes and his mustache as all the students screamed.

GWU was his first choice; he wants to study international affairs and Asian languages.

Li is still waiting to hear from her longtime first choice, Cornell University, which she has been researching since freshman year. She wants to be a biologist. Li said she is grateful and happy for GWU's scholarship but won't make a decision until she hears from Cornell in a week or so.

Oscar Garibay looked over at his son, surrounded like Li by friends and teachers congratulating them, and his wife, wiping away tears. "He's accomplishing things that, as a teenager, I never dreamed of," he said.