Resaca Eighth Grader Chosen Jack Kent Cooke Scholar

Gerardo Segura may be one of the most soft-spoken students at Resaca Middle School, but even his academic achievements speak volumes.

Segura was notified that he is a Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholar, one of 62 students chosen nationally for the prestigious award.
More than 2,000 eighth grade students across the country applied. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established to help exceptionally promising students. The program, launched in 2000, focuses on students with financial need.

“This is like winning the lottery,” said his counselor Rosa Linda Cruz. “This shows that anything is possible. He still will have to maintain high standards with good grades, but he will be offered academic enrichment beyond his dreams.”
Students selected for the program are based on criteria of high academic ability and achievement, financial need, persistence, and a desire to help others. Applications are submitted during seventh grade.

The program provides generous scholarship experiences for students with financial need. Recipients are given the opportunity to attend summer programs and college preparatory academies during their high school years, if they so choose.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the acceptance letter,” said Segura, the son of Froylan and Sylvia Segura of Brownsville. “It’s a great program and I am looking forward to it.”

Segura, the top-ranked eighth-grader at Resaca, participates in the Robotics Team and UIL Mathematics team. His favorite subject is mathematics.

He and one parent will be offered a trip to Washington, D.C. in June 2014. He will meet his cohort of fellow eighth graders that includes budding musicians, mathematicians, artists, scientists, writers and more.

He will also be offered the opportunity to attend a summer college preparatory program.

Segura is the second recipient from the Los Fresnos CISD to receive the award. In 2009, then Resaca eighth-grader Maria Fernanda Martinez was notified of the honor. She went to Washington in June 2010, and attended Los Fresnos United in 2010-11, and Los Fresnos High School in 2011-12.

Martinez decided to take advantage of her opportunities in 2012 and attends Phillips Exeter Academy – on a full scholarship.

Segura will have the same opportunities to attend a college preparatory program at a prestigious school if he wishes.

“This is a scholarship for seventh graders only,” Cruz said. “It’s a huge honor and a unique opportunity, because most scholarships are offered to high school students.”

Interested students had to complete a 32-page application and several small essays.

Parents must also complete an application, and teachers wrote recommendation letters.

Segura, who does not have a Facebook account, hopes to become a video game programmer or something similar after college.
He does all of his research at the school because his family does not have Internet access at home.