College Ready student, Shervin, was accepted to Northwestern on a full ride scholarship!

Okay. So first thing off, I just want to shout out, I'm so impressed with what you've accomplished. I mean, you've got to be so excited of what you achieved. I remember starting this process with you and feeling a little overwhelmed, maybe a little bit, and then all of a sudden it just clicked for you. So today the whole goal is just to celebrate you. I really just want— yeah, I just, you know, it's, it's always interesting. This time of year is really fun for some students and not as much fun for others, but I get the opportunity to, to celebrate you. So I just wanted to say congratulations.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome. And I also wanted to, to chat with you a little bit about, um, next steps But before we do, can we just talk a little bit about what it was like when you got your acceptance? I just live vicariously through you. I'm so excited.

Yeah, so I know, I know it was like, we, we always like, we're like, okay, Sherwin, just like follow the college ready, you'll, you'll get there. And I, and I completely understood that. Um, but, and I know it was like a little bit more unconventional, and I did I'll be honest, I did put a little bit of my eggs in one basket, um, but I, I like deep down I was like, oh, this is, this, this really resonated with me, and, um, I was really confident that I would get the scholarship. Um, so that is on my bad. I just, I just had a lot of confidence when I went in for the scholarship. It just really resonated with me. Yeah, but, uh, so yeah, it was, it was like, it exhilarating because, um, Northwestern is exactly where I want to be and attend for like the next 4 years. Um, and I didn't know that, Sherbin.

I'm talking to kids every single day who are like, I don't know where I want to go, I don't know what I want to do. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that because I want to learn. It worked for you, so how did you put all that together?

Um, so which part?

Like, let's, let's back it, back it up a little bit. When you said, I knew that was my perfect school, I knew that scholarship was going to be mine, and my question is, how did you know?

So, um, Northwestern wasn't always like my top choice, um, because I always wanted to go to UCLA. Stay close with family and, you know, really stay kind of traditional with my family. But the scholarship was all about leadership in different ways, if that makes sense. How are you like a leader at home? How are you a leader outside? How are you a leader with your family, in your community? And what can you provide to a college campus? That's like the foundations of the scholarship. And I thought I provided something unique to it. And when the idea of Northwestern came up, I was still kind of— I'm going to be honest, I'm not— I'm not there yet. I don't know what I want to do the next 4 years. If I'm being honest, I declared a major that I can get into the engineering program because it's a lot easier to get into engineering than to get into another major and then transfer in. But luckily I did get the biomedical scholarship for engineering as well. So that, that really resonated with me that they're looking for kids like with a lot of diverse backgrounds. And that's what my posse is. The 9 other people that are going with me to Northwestern are same fundamental values as me, but just completely different experiences. And it's, and it's really nice. But Northwestern really started to grow on me because I can, I can talk about, you know, the prestigious part of it, but that part didn't really resonate with me. The part that resonated with me was the amount of hard work that it requires at that school. And I'm not really one to like shy away from a challenging task. And if I feel like if I put myself in that environment, Obviously, it's going to be grueling. It's going to be tough for me. But I like to grow as a person. And I feel like Northwestern is a school that's going to really, really challenge me and honestly, just break me down. And then I have to rebuild myself again. And I'm excited for that.

I'm so proud of you. Let's take it back a little bit further. When we first started working together, And what would you tell the Shervin a few years back? What wise advice would you say as you have now gone through the entire process with College Ready? What would you have told yourself?

Definitely just be more meticulous with what you're doing, if that makes sense. Sophomore and junior year, I was— I'm looking back on it and I got really lucky because I found the things that I like to do and I was able to put a lot of work into them. But I got lucky with finding these opportunities and it doesn't take long to be meticulous with it, if I'm being honest, just being consistent with it every day and not getting these short spurts of Oh, I want to get into college, and then I'm gonna spend my Saturday for a couple hours instead of, oh, let me spend maybe 15 minutes every day towards this bigger goal. And that's with everything, with the gym, with whatever. But in terms of academics and college advice, being meticulous, even if you don't know what you want to do, it doesn't mean the plan does not have to be perfect. It just has to be something that you can be consistent with. That's definitely the advice that I would give to myself because towards the end, towards my senior year, I had to put a little bit more work and I was fine with that. But it's just, it was a lot of unnecessary work that I could have done maybe my junior and sophomore year.

Yeah, so I'm heading back to Uganda in June, and I know you were very passionate about that project. And I often think about when you came over and you delivered the gifts that you wanted to give to the children and how excited you were. Um, was it— what, what were the highlights? Um, as we work together, I just remember your face light up and just you, you really leaned into it. What were the other things that maybe you can think of to tell the younger students about, you know, the opportunity?

Yeah, I believe College Ready provides really good opportunities with extracurriculars. Definitely don't force yourself to do anything that you're not passionate with, because if you're passionate with it, you're able to become— make a lot of better story out of it, and colleges really see the passion in it. I don't know, I really like the opportunity because it gave us the chance of having this project and really being able to put a lot of work into it. I personally worked with a couple other students who made a graphic design, and then I went and printed them all, got them nice and laminized. How do I say laminated? Laminated. And I had my own stand for 2 weeks over the weekend. I would just go to different places and like club events and I would just sell a lot of snacks. And then all the profits went exactly towards the Uganda project.

It was so beautiful watching you just find your way and then ultimately So excited to give the way that you did. So thank you for that. That project is now built 3 schools in Uganda, and we're taking it to nonprofit status. So you're a founder. You should be very proud of yourself.

Thank you. Thank you so much. That's actually really good to hear. I'm really glad that it's still thriving.

Oh, it's doing great consistently. Every week we meet now, and students are so, so excited. You're always welcome to join. You're always welcome to log in from school and say hi. Um, what were some other things that you think made your application stand out, made the colleges really pay attention to some of the things that you offered?

Um, I believe my— obviously people can attain to their ethnic background as one of their big parts of their identity. But the fact that I did something with it, and I told— I was able to tell my story, and I was able to connect it to my extracurriculars. The basis of my personal statement was that I always wanted to go back to my home country, but if I did, I would get imprisoned or I would get put in the military for a couple years. But I always wanted to help my community. So instead of going there, I decided to use my skills and be useful and provide, like, be— being a hub for immigrants in the— is not— is no longer the Afghan refugees, but now Ukrainian. And we're working with Glendale School Districts and kind of being the opposite of instead of going there, we're helping refugees here with tutoring, English, math, resume building.

And yeah, there was so much to your application. I'm sure you can go on and on, but I, I agree with you, your essay was phenomenal, and I think it really told your story well. As you look forward to college, what are you most excited about?

Honestly, the, the— I don't know what I'm going to be excited about with that, with— and that makes me excited, if that makes sense. Um, I can talk about, you know, kind of living by myself and having that more independency, but I think the biggest thing that I'm excited for is not knowing what's ahead. Um, and that unknowingness, it's going to really make me grow as a person, and I'm really excited for that. Which is especially going to a different state, not, not having much people there, not knowing what's going to be happening there and not having much of a— there's no— there's only so much I can plan for it, if that makes sense. At some point I just have to like dive into the water and I'm really excited to dive in.

I love it. You know, your mom was your biggest cheerleader and And I just, you know, there's a village behind you, even though it seems like you're leaving your village. I promise you, you will still feel— because she's just always going to be, and your dad as well. I mean, I don't want to leave him out. I just know that you have such a great family support system and that will never change. So just know as you go that that's going to be with you. Let's think a little bit about your major, right? You talked a little bit about, well, I chose engineering because it'd be better to start with that than anything else. As we progressed together and we started to guide you, you're so good at so many things. I think that's what we found the challenge to be.

That was the problem. I just— I know we had these conversations of, oh, you— doesn't matter about what school you get into or what major you want because those are two different paths you can take. If you want to get into UCLA, go undecided or go as a business major. If you just want to get into college, enter that college. Or— and then another conversation we'd have was, you know, okay, what major do you want? And then look for a school that attains to that major and then the environment around it. And I really just couldn't point at one thing. It was like, this is what I want to do. I remember it went from— let's see. Started off as— yeah, I remember it started off as, oh, I want to go play college basketball.

Yes, yes.

Yeah. Big, big aspirations, big dreams. I'm still going to play intramural ball. I'm still going to try out for the girls— for the varsity, the D1 basketball girls, being their practice squad. So I still have that. I still have that aspirations for basketball. But I remember we started there. And then I was just like, this is, this is overwhelming. It was like, I'm only a sophomore. I don't know what to do. And then I think I went to business and then sports management or something like that. Yes. Then I went to medical school because my mom really wanted me to become a doctor. And then, and then I went to more of the engineering towards the end of my Beginning of my senior year. I think the reason why I chose biomedical engineering, I used to volunteer at a hospital for almost a year and a half, and the, the environment that it had, I just didn't— it didn't really resonate with me. I felt like hospitals weren't really a place that a person would go for to get better. And I felt like it was a lot of hospitals are for-profit businesses and I didn't wanna become a part of that system, but I still wanted to help people. And the College Ready did help me find my core values. So that was a big plus. And it eventually led me to find engineering 'cause I really like math. I really enjoy being STEM-oriented. And, but I also wanted to do something with my major. And biomedical engineering has a lot of different paths I can go into. And I'm excited for the long hours I'm going to put into the library. Long, long hours.

I love it. You're telling yourself, I'm excited for those long hours. And when did you find out, I know it was super early on, that you got in? To college and you got a big scholarship. What month was that?

Yeah, so that was— the exact month was November 30th. I was writing. I remember I was with Christine and we were writing. She was helping me. I'll be honest, I did procrastinate the UC essays because I was so anxious about the scholarship. I was really prepping for the final interview. The whole past 2 weeks and my Thanksgiving break. That's all I was thinking about and preparing for. So we were writing those UC essays and then I got a phone call and I remember some of the finalists, they would say, oh, they're going to call you. So I'm like, okay. And then I only have 20, I have 24 hours to respond or else the scholarship goes to somebody else. So they call me and I go, Christine, like someone's calling me. And, um, yeah, I got the phone call, we, we hopped on the Zoom, and I, I have the video of the acceptance. It's, it's, uh, so yeah, it was November 30th, but it was a really long process. I think it started in April or May of last year, um, then the first round interview was in August, second round interview was in September, a couple essays later it was around mid-October, and then November was the final interview.

You worked so hard for that, Shervin. I'm so proud of you.

Thank you so much. It was, it was something that I really resonated with, and you knew from the beginning.

I remember talking to you, you're like, Shellee, I just know I'm gonna get this. Preparing you for your interviews and being your cheerleader has been such a pleasure, and I just, I really would love for you to keep in touch.

Yes. I really want that as well. I remember you were keep on telling, you know, Sherwin, like, "Get it. It's a great scholarship. Go for it. Just don't put all your eggs in your basket." And I really needed that voice. I really needed somebody that's going to like— that was going to ground me and keep me realistic because a lot of the times, especially as a kid, you look at something and you think it's gold and you're going to reach too far for it. That you might actually hurt yourself in the end. Luckily, I didn't. But I know a lot of people that finalists at that interview that put all their eggs in that basket and were applying to Ivies only and were, didn't have strong extracurriculars. And they have to learn that they had to treat that as a learning process. And not necessarily go back to square one, but College Ready really helped me stay away from that. I like idealistically, that's what I was really able to take away is spread your wings, but keep your, keep your talents on the branch.

Yeah, I like that. So what was the final tally of the scholarship that you won? What was the exact Scholarship?

Yeah, it was a— it's a full tuition scholarship to any partner school that Posse— I don't know if you're familiar with it. I tried to— you are? Oh, that's amazing. So Posse, they had partners with 10 different schools. I chose Northwestern and I got matched with Northwestern. I had a final interview with other Northwestern finalists. And people from Chicago flew down from Northwestern to interview us. And the basis of the scholarship is that you go with 9 other people to Northwestern. It's a full tuition scholarship. So all, all the tuition is paid and it's a merit-based scholarship. So it's, it's not financial based.

It's so cool. You did it. I mean, when you were younger, you just want to play basketball. You about college. And look at you now, you got that full ride that people say isn't available. So congratulations, Sherman, you, you worked hard and you definitely deserve it.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. You are welcome.