AUGUST 23, 2023 — For the 2023 incoming Top Scholars, it didn’t really feel like they picked UTSA as their college of choice. It felt like UTSA picked them.
In a way, UTSA did. The first-time college students had to apply separately for the UTSA Top Scholar program and undergo a competitive application process, which included stringent academic and extracurricular requirements, as well as an interview.
While these high-achieving students easily could have gone to almost any university of their choice, they chose UTSA for its academic rigor, flexibility and community.
Tom C. Clark High School graduate Jonah Espinoza visited several schools before selecting UTSA, but what stood out to him was the dinner he attended during the Top Scholar selection process. University President Taylor Eighmy walked up to Espinoza at dinner and started talking to him about his accomplishments.
“There’s nowhere else that I visited that the president of the university already knew my name without me introducing myself and asked me about the things that I had done, and that really assured me that here at UTSA I’m going to be valued and really have access to all the resources I want in order to really execute the visions that I have in my mind,” Espinoza said.
Those visions include a dual degree in politics & law and in finance before going to law school. At Clark High in San Antonio, Espinoza created a legal awareness initiative to educate students on their legal rights and responsibilities as part of his independent study mentorship. As part of that mentorship, Espinoza interned with an attorney who specializes in criminal and civil law, but he wants to focus on addressing inequities in educational policy, likely in a government role.
Plano East Senior High School graduate Megan Ho knew UTSA was the right choice for her as soon as she visited the campus. The North Texas resident felt right at home visiting Guadalupe Hall, the home of the Honors Residential College where Top Scholars live, and meeting other students.
“I took a step back, and I really saw that it’s like a big family,” Ho said. “And I didn’t really see that anywhere else.”
As a bonus, Ho’s older sister is also a Top Scholar and a senior at UTSA, so they will get to spend at least one year together on campus.
Ho plans to major in medical humanities and become a dentist. She said most aspiring dentists major in biology, but she chose medical humanities because she believes it’s important to understand both the medical side of the field and the cultural side so she can better interact with patients.
“Another thing that stood out to me is that UTSA is one of the few schools that even has medical humanities as a major,” she said. “It involves both the sciences and the humanities aspect, which is very important in dentistry because you not only have to be a good dentist, but you have to have those interpersonal skills.”
At Plano East, Ho founded a chapter of Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that provides cleft lip and cleft palate surgery. She heard about the organization from her dentist, who travels to other countries to perform surgeries and cleanings — something Ho aspires to do one day. In two years, she helped raise more than $1,500 for Operation Smile.
The UTSA Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute drew Klein Cain High School graduate Ricky Pagnozzi II to the university. The Houston-area native has always enjoyed working with children and plans to major in psychology so he can help children who have endured trauma.
But he also chose UTSA because he felt like the university would value him as a person.
“I feel like at other schools I would just be a number, but not at UTSA,” he said. “I really get the feeling that I’m not going to be just a number, but I’m going to be valued as a student.”
Pagnozzi said he will probably always remember the moment he found out he had been selected as a Top Scholar. He ranked No. 11 out of 971 students in his senior class, so he got to invite friends, family and mentors to the school’s ceremony for the top 10% of the class. As he sat in the ceremony, he received an email notification on his phone that said, “Congratulations, Top Scholar!” Pagnozzi jumped out of his seat and ran to tell his family, friends and some former teachers who influenced him.
“It was just a really, really nice, surreal moment, and I really liked that I was able to have that moment with a bunch of people who had a tremendous impact on my life,” he said.
Young Women’s Leadership Academy graduate Zeina Hijazi didn’t know UTSA was the school for her until she set foot on campus. All throughout her high school career, she heard that she would know which college was the right fit for her, but she felt like she could go to school anywhere.
It wasn’t until she met with students and professors at UTSA and experienced the energy of the campus that she knew.
“One of my favorite memories from this year is walking onto the UTSA campus during my interview for the Top Scholar program and immediately knowing, kind of instinctively understanding, what it meant to be a good fit at a college,” she said. “I feel like UTSA is a place where I see growth. I see a chance to be a part of a lot of momentum that’s happening, where people will look back and be like, ‘Wow, that was really a wonderful time to be at that school.’”
While the Jordan native wants to major in biomedical engineering, she appreciates the value of the arts and humanities. In high school, she served as class president but also became heavily involved in the schools’ Young Poets Society. The poets would meet every two weeks after school and write, share poems and discover poets that moved them. Hijazi particularly enjoyed the groups’ Anti-Valentine’s Day party where they focused on self-love.
“It’s something that I would love to continue because it was a spontaneous space,” she said. “It’s really more about than just the craft of it. It’s about drawing people together.”
The UTSA Top Scholar program enables students to engage in signature programming, develop comprehensive professional portfolios, live and learn in a community of scholars, receive auto-enrollment into the Honors College, obtain access to numerous research opportunities, experience exclusive interaction with senior university staff and faculty, and engagement opportunities with community leaders.
The Top Scholar program will begin accepting applications on September 1. The deadline to apply to the program is December 1.
— Brooke Crum
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