Magnolia High School 2019 senior Mariah Guevara was recently selected one of only 7,500 students across the country to be named a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship award and receive collegiate funding. The field began with 1.6 million applicants. In the fall, she will enroll at Brown University where she will study medicine with an emphasis in biomechanical engineering.
Imagine being a teenager again. Imagine the life of a high-schooler, navigating the final days of adolescence and readying yourself for adulthood. Then imagine you're competing for a spot at an Ivy League university and a place among one of the more prestigious academic scholarship honors in the country. Sound like a nightmare? Nah, it sounds like just another year in the life of one local high school senior.
At 5 years old, Mariah Guevara made her way to Magnolia. A daughter of Southern Arkansas University faculty, she spent her entire K-12 academic career at the local public school system and will take her final steps as a Magnolia High School senior at the May 16 commencement. Aside from holding a GPA north of 4.0, being a member of numerous school organizations, and earning an ACT score of 34, the teenager will also walk across the graduate stage as one of only 7,500 students in America to be designated a National Merit Scholarship recipient.
The award amount may not be the largest - it comes in at $2,500 - but the prestige associated with it is almost priceless. Out of the total pool of applicants, less than one-half of 1 percent earn the scholarship's funding and make it as finalists.
The process of handing out the award has taken some time. As a junior, Guevara was one of 1.6 million students to take the PSAT, or practice SAT, exam. From there, she qualified as one of 50,000 high-scorers across the nation to receive a letter of commendation. The numbers were again whittled down in September when the organization slotted 16,000 individuals as semifinalists.
As the selection of finalists approached, students were required to take the authentic SAT exam to reinforce their previous test scores. In all, the application process for Guevara took roughly 18 months of essays, interviews, exams, and playing the waiting game to complete. In February, the MHS senior finally received word of her finalist scholarship qualification.
"I was pretty excited when I found out," she said.
Prepping for the National Merit Scholarship award may not even be the most hectic part of her senior year. She also prepped and tested for her next stop on the academic pathway: Providence, Rhode Island, and Brown University.
The senior received news of her acceptance just two months before word came down of her Merit Scholarship award. While heading to an MHS Choir concert in December, Guevara nonchalantly dropped the university bombshell to her mother.
"I just told her, 'I got accepted to Brown University,'" she said. "She just stopped the car dead in the road, looked at me and said, 'What was that?'"
With scores and a class schedule packed with virtually every advanced placement course offered at MHS - AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP Literature, AP Environmental, and AP Statistics - Guevara was accepted almost immediately to her college of choice. But she also met and excelled at the extracurricular activities that so many institutes of higher education now strongly desire in applicants.
The high school senior, aside from her choir membership, is also president of Columbia County Library's Teen Advisory Board, president of Future Business Leaders of America, secretary for the MHS Drama Club, public relations representative for MHS' science club, a member of the Community Panthers, a member of TYTL (Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Leaders), a varsity tennis athlete, and co-captain of the MHS Quiz Bowl team. With a full schedule, one club took a hit this year. Her membership on the Youth Advisory Council had to fall by the wayside.
"I guess something had to give," she laughingly said.
The activities, though, are not all work and no play. The club memberships deal with aspects in which she already has a passion.
"It wasn't just about the resume," said Guevara. "I actually enjoy all of them."
Enjoyment may be an understatement for two of her most-loved subjects: literature and trivia. Naturally, quiz bowl is the perfect melding of each, serving as both a brain-busting trivia challenge as well as a social highlight.
"I'm kind of the classic lit expert on the team," Guevara said. "I guess I'm just a nerd for old-fashioned literature. The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite."
With her high school days nearly over, the senior hopes to next pursue a medical career in biomechanical engineering - specifically as a doctor with an emphasis in prosthetics. In prep of her next scholastic journey, Guevara for the past few summers worked as an intern at Magnolia Regional Medical Center and shadowed its general surgeon at a wound-care clinic.
"I've just always been interested in that area," she said.
A past car accident involving a family member also spurred-on and solidified the choice.
With so many accolades coming her way in recent months, the high school senior says she could not have accomplished any of them without her family's strong backing. From her father's words of "No one out-hustles a Guevara" to her mother's extra inspiration and her older sister's encouragement, their support has always been there to go the extra mile.
"I know they are so proud of me," Guevara added. "They always pushed me to be better."
As the page now turns on her life and she looks to the future, the lifelong Magnolia Schools student says the full class schedules and the road leading to the Merit Scholarship and the Brown acceptance may have been challenging at times, but it was all worth it.
"It's just been a whirlwind," she said. "With so much happening at once, it takes a lot to process. But it's all very exciting."