Ogden siblings overcome odds to receive prestigious national scholarship two years in a row
Ogden High School senior Mariah Jimenez poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, at the school. Jimenez was selected to receive a the prestigious 2021 National Horatio Alger National Scholarship for $25,000.
Ogden High School senior Philip Jimenez poses for a portrait on Jan. 23, 2020, at the school. Jimenez was selected to receive a the prestigious 2020 Horatio Alger National Scholarship for $25,000.
Ogden High School senior Mariah Jimenez poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, at the school. Jimenez was selected to receive a the prestigious 2021 National Horatio Alger National Scholarship for $25,000.
OGDEN — When Ogden High School senior Mariah Jimenez found out she had been awarded the prestigious Horatio Alger National Scholarship as she was being tested for COVID-19, her first reaction was to tell her older brother, Philip Jimenez.
“First she texted me, then she called me and she was crying,” the elder Jimenez said. “I didn’t cry, but I was really happy for her because I know how much it means to get something like that.”
Philip Jimenez can relate because, just one year ago, he received the same scholarship.
Out of tens of thousands of applicants, it’s difficult to be one of the 106 selected to receive the Horatio Alger National Scholarship, worth $25,000. And it’s rare to be awarded the scholarship one year after it was given to an older sibling.
The scholarship is administered through the Horatio Alger Association, one of the nation’s largest privately funded, need-based college financial aid programs. This year, just one other Utah student was awarded the scholarship. Four students from the Ogden School District have been selected to receive it in the last six years, according to district spokesperson Jer Bates.
To qualify for the scholarship, students must maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA, be involved in extracurricular and community service activities, have a strong desire to pursue higher education, demonstrate critical financial need and “display integrity and perseverance in overcoming adversity.”
The Jimenez siblings both faced — and overcame — significant hardship growing up, which they detailed in essays as part of the scholarship application.
“A lot of them were pretty personal about my family life, which is pretty difficult to talk about, so I felt pretty vulnerable,” Mariah Jimenez said. Writing the essays, however, made her feel empowered, she added
She said many of the essay questions asked about her parents and her relationship with them. Philip Jimenez told the Standard-Examiner in 2020 that when he and Mariah were younger, the family moved around a lot, often bouncing from the home of one family member to another. At times, the family was homeless.
For the majority of her childhood, Mariah said, she was being raised by a single mom. She currently has no contact with her biological father.
The family was able to settle down in a stable home in Ogden before the children began high school. Philip said the family got back on their feet due to the hard work of their mom, who never attended college.
“Ultimately, it’s just been scary being a senior and having to fill out these applications when she’s never done that before,” Mariah said.
So, she looked to her brother and Jesus Garcia, a college access advisor with Weber State University’s TRiO program, for help.
“A major portion of the application focuses solely on the adversity applicants have faced in life that include subjects such as divorced parents, poverty, hunger, homelessness, physical/emotional abuse, drug/substance abuse, alcoholism, mental health, and more,” Garcia said in an email.
He continued, “She and all the other applicants had to dig deep to uncover and share those vulnerable truths of their realities with the hopes of winning this scholarship. It’s a tough application to get through, but Mariah did it and I was so happy and honored that she allowed me to help her edit these essays to get the most out of the limited space we had.”
Garcia advises 150 students at Ogden High — 50 from each grade. He said Mariah’s ability to excel academically while balancing extracurricular activities, work and family responsibilities has amazed him throughout her time at Ogden High.
“I’m very focused on school, you can say. I enjoy coming to school,” Mariah said.
She is a member of the National Honors Society and spends a lot of time volunteering to do community service with the group. Mariah has also played on the tennis team since she was a freshman.
With the scholarship money, Mariah plans to study nursing at Southern Utah University. Her drive to pursue that career, she said, is to help others and inspire students like her.
“I want to be that role model for other people in their lives, and I want to be able to support other people when they’re not able to,” Mariah said.
Philip is considering a career in health care, too. He is currently studying biochemistry at the University of Oregon and is weighing the options of becoming a researcher in medicinal chemistry or attending medical school to become a doctor.
He said the scholarship has given him more freedom to explore his academic options than he would have otherwise had.
“I’m a lot less stressed that I’m not paying for college, and that’s going to be helpful to Mariah, too,” he said.
For Mariah, attending college has always been a goal. With a single mom and three other siblings, though, she wasn’t sure where she would get the money to pay for it.
The work ethic in he and his sister, Philip said, drove them to find a way.
“We both have a shared understanding of our situation and that we have to do a little extra to overcome some obstacles,” Philip said. “Neither of us ever gave up, but we both decided to just keep pushing forward.”