Stephanie Pujols: First In Her Family With Farthest Serve
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The latest Health Plus/NY1 Scholar Athlete is a Manhattan senior who is reaching new heights for her family. NY1's Jon Weinstein filed the following report. Stephanie Pujols is quiet and modest, but the student at the High School for Environmental Studies in Clinton, Manhattan is on the verge of a momentous accomplishment. This June, she will be the first member of her family to graduate high school and head to college.
"It's going to make you feel awesome, when you're the only person who's gotten so far," says Pujols.
She has gotten this far through lots of hard work. Pujols is the co-captain of the tennis and volleyball teams. Before she came to high school, she had never played tennis, and her coach says over the last four years she's evolved into a role model and leader for her teammates.
"She took the basics, became very good at it. She's a wonderful captain, she makes the other kids better and she's what a coach really, really loves, because she's a great student-athlete," says tennis coach Eugene Downs. "She just makes everyone around her better."
Pujols really defines "scholar-athlete" through her work in the classroom. She's an A-student ranked in the top 10 percent of her class who challenges herself with college-level classes. Her teachers rave about her determination and problem-solving ability.
"She's the student who makes it enjoyable to do my job because she really cares and she's going places," says social studies teacher Sari Rosenberg.
"She is certainly a very good problem-solver. I don't really need to help her that much, and the other good thing about Stephanie is that she is able to explain that technique to solving the problem to her peers," says physics teacher Edgar Miranda.
Pujols will be applying those problem solving skills next year at Barnard, where she is planning on studying architecture.
"It's everything that I liked combined -- there's mathematics, there's the physics, the science, there's also the challenge and the design, which I'm into," she says.
So, for being the first in her family heading to college while also making her mark in high school, Stephanie Pujols is the latest Health Plus/NY1 Scholar Athlete of the Week.
The Health Plus/NY1 Scholar Athlete program celebrates student athletes who successfully combine academics with athletics, and also find time for community service. The program, operated in conjunction with the New York City Department of Education, is open to any senior attending a New York City public high school.
Each week of the school year, a selected student is profiled on NY1 and receives a $2,000 scholarship to the school they choose to attend in the fall.
To apply, download and print out the
official Scholar Athlete application, then mail it to the address on the form.