Miami Proud: South Plantation High grad awarded prestigious national scholarship
MIAMI - Emily Lowe is a student like no other says her teacher, Aaron Hughes.
She is a graduate of South Plantation High School and is making her family proud and all those who know her.
"It's an unusual thing for my family to have someone to go to college but when I was little, they kind of picked me because they saw I could read pretty good, and they said this one was going to college," said Emily Lowe Graduate.
And now, Emily is just one of 3 students in the state of Florida and 100 nationwide to be awarded The Horatio Alger National Scholarship.
It's part of a program that awards students who show great determination, integrity and perseverance in overcoming great obstacles in their young lives.
"My adversity started when I was in the fifth grade, I was 10 years old. My mother was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma, and she passed away six months later, and I moved in full-time with my father. And he is disabled and can only work part-time," said Emily.
Emily channeled her pain and heartbreak into her schoolwork and being the best that she can be while keeping the promise she made to the woman she loved the most.
"She instilled in me this necessity for education and me, and I promised her when she was in hospice, that I would continue that I wouldn't forget her education of values, and that I would go to college," said Emily.
And that promise is being kept.
Emily will be attending Colorado College.
Then hopefully Columbia University where she hopes to make another dream come true in memory of her mother.
"I felt that biomedical engineering is a perfect match between the research that I love to do my passion for science and also the fulfillment to also help some 10-year-old little girl, not lose her mom in the future," said Emily.
"As long as she sticks to what she's doing she is going to change the world," said Aaron Hughes Teacher.
Emily says going to college always seemed like an impossible goal because of her financial status and is grateful for The Horatio Alger scholarship for making her dream come true.