Coral Gables High School graduate Cole Scanlon is going to Harvard.
As many students do, he began applying for as many scholarships as he could. However, unlike most students who apply for scholarships, Scanlon was quite successful, winning thousands of dollars, including $40,000 from the Ronald Reagan Foundation and GE.
“I sort of went for the shotgun approach. With my family situation it would be hard to afford to college without a scholarship,” he said.
The fact that he is interested in development economics to help grow the economies of Third World countries was likely a factor in his scholarship successes — and his extracurricular activities at Gables High.
At Harvard, he plans to take economics and applied mathematics.
“I sort of see myself going the economic policy and development economics route.”
Along with the Ronald Regan Scholarship, he also won a scholarship from Coca Cola for $20,000, the Buick Achievers Scholarship for $100,000, the Footlocker Scholar Athletes for $20,000 and $5,000 from the Sixth Scholars program.
However, because of the rules limiting what the money from the scholarships can be used for (many are just for tuition) Scanlon will be giving back several of the scholarships. Otherwise that income will affect his financial aid from Harvard and would mean an increase in how much his parents have to pay.
At Gables, Scanlon was the junior and senior class president and he was on the varsity soccer team. He also started the Support Our Sports Club, which was designed to build school spirit.
“We had an incentive program. All the members had membership cards that were stamped every game you went to,” he said. “Every month or so we would have SOS treat days. All the members with five stamps got a treat.”
The club will continue even without Scanlon. A board is in place that is planning for the upcoming school year.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
