Story Submitted
Montserrat Santilan-Rodriguez is a junior at Jefferson County K-12: A Somerset School, and recently Montserrat, known as Monsi to most, entered her submission in a yearly essay contest sponsored by Tri-County Electric Coop.
Monsi not only entered an essay, but her essay was chosen as one of the winners.
In winning the contest, she will be able to represent Jefferson-Somerset on a trip to the United States Capital when, as one of several area high school juniors to be chosen, Monsi will be sent by Tri-County Electric to attend the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington D.C.
In order for Monsi to qualify for the trip, she endured an extensive process that included writing a 500-word essay telling about herself, the benefits of a cooperative, and what she would like to gain by participating in this program.
In her essay Monserrat stated that “at the age of only five-years-old, I moved from my homeland of Mexico into an unknown world full of the unknown and insecurity. My parents taught me day and night until I could get along on my own at school without the need of a translator. Today, I currently hold a 4.0 unweighted GPA and a 4.2 weighted GPA. My parents ensured to carve the importance of education into my head along the way. To make their sacrifices worth it, I plan to keep working hard to graduate both high school and college.”
Monserrat is a very busy junior at Jefferson-Somerset where she is a midfielder on the soccer team, a volunteer at the library, a tutor to various students, a dual enrollment student, and plans on graduating with her AA degree. The English instructor from North Florida Community College remarked that her writing style was “well beyond her years in creativity and grammar usage.”
Her future plans include graduating from high school then attending University of Central Florida to study computer engineering with hopes of working for a prestigious company, such as Google.
The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour is a prestigious event in which thousands of high school sophomores and juniors from across the nation join together to gain an understanding of our nation’s history and the freedoms, as well as the many costs of those freedoms.
The experience is rewarding, educational and fun as well as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, all-expenses-paid leadership travel opportunity.
From the battlefields of Gettysburg to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., Youth Tour will explore the leadership lessons of our nation’s history and immerse the students in the cooperative spirit.
Jefferson Somerset K-12 is very proud and excited for Monsi as she represents her school and her family very well during this adventure to Washington D.C.
Congratulations Monsi and a great big thank you to Tri-County Electric Cooperative for making this dream a reality for so many students over the years.
You must be logged in to post a comment.