Successful quest for top scholarships at Wheeling High School

At some point, a series of seemingly unrelated events becomes a trend.

So it is at Wheeling High School, where six students in three years have earned QuestBridge Scholarships, which, per its mission, “connects the nation’s brightest students … with leading institutions of higher education.”

Wheeling’s QuestBridge recipients this year are seniors Maryam Abbas, bound for Yale, and Timothy Kabakov and Omar Rodriguez, both of whom will attend Columbia University. How rigorous is the road to a QuestBridge match? Nationwide, more than 25,000 seniors applied in September; only 2,627 eventually were granted full-ride, 4-year scholarships.

Abbas and Rodriguez both learned about QuestBridge from online searches and previous WHS students who had earned QuestBridge matches (QuestBridge operates by asking applicants to rank their preferred universities and then “matching” successful applicants to one school from their list). Kabakov heard about QuestBridge from Abbas, a friend, who simply told him, “You’re very smart; you should apply for this.”

The application process is tight and rigorous, requiring multiple supplemental essays and additional admission writing supplements for each college to which students choose to apply. As for the schools they targeted, Abbas and Kabakov each had distinct reasons for their choices.

Abbas wanted a top-tier university; she did not, however, want a school lacking socioeconomic diversity.

“I was scared of being in an environment where being a first-gen, low-income student would be a barrier,” she said. “Yale has a lot of socioeconomic diversity, and because of its residential college system, I like the connections people are able to make with each other.”

Rodriguez was shopping for a university with a strong engineering program and diversity, both of which he found at Columbia. His participation in the selective Engineering Preview at Columbia program bumped the school up near the top of his list.

Kabakov wanted a big-city university. Columbia fit the bill, along with having a well-established Jewish campus community, which is also important to him. In addition, he likes Columbia’s academic approach.

“I like that Columbia has a core curriculum,” he said. “All students are required to take humanities classes and other core courses. I think this will help me to get my literacy to a more professional level.”

Why does someone granted a full ride to Columbia need to improve his literacy? Because Kabakov arrived in the United States only two years ago, from Ukraine. In his homeland, he says, his basic English instruction was the rough equivalent of a U.S. student taking a couple of years of Spanish: covering only the fundamentals.

Once he arrived at Wheeling, Kabakov seized every opportunity available. He joined the math team. He successfully auditioned for stage roles, even landing the lead in this year’s fall musical, “Rent.” He made the volleyball team, played electric guitar in talent shows, performed in choral concerts, coded robots during an internship for a local firm and, by the way, worked with a friend to launch a coding club at Wheeling. His academic future, he says, will focus on computer science, probably software engineering. Kabakov credits Wheeling administrators and teachers with placing him “in whatever classes I wanted,” even when his new-arrival circumstances meant that he hadn’t always had a chance to complete the typical prerequisites.

“All my teachers were extremely supportive,” he said. “I didn’t have any restrictions.”

Similarly, Rodriguez lauds the support he’s received.

“Wheeling and District 214 provide a ton of resources,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to take my passion wherever I want to go, whether it’s engineering programming or music.” His WHS experience, he said, has led to additional opportunities. Among them, a mentor match with the Illinois Institute of Technology that entails he and a partner conducting research on converting bio waste into battery anodes, a project recently selected for presentation at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

For her part, Abbas overcame challenges of her own. She moved to Wheeling shortly before beginning high school and at about the time her grandmother, with whom she was close, passed away. She hails from a single-parent household and often lacked the support of her academic goals.

“I was kind of reeling from navigating a lot of changes at home,” said Abbas, who, at school, found diversion in her work.

‘I’ve always cared about doing well in school,” said Abbas, who gradually discovered at WHS that she particularly enjoyed congressional debate, where she found success and a voice that she is prepared to use for herself and others.

“I participated in a few programs over the summer and started to get out of my comfort zone,” Abbas said. “I started to learn more about how powerful my story can be.” At Yale, she plans to focus on the humanities, public policy and law. She also plans to engage in social advocacy work, which has become increasingly important to her.

In addition to her own hard work, Abbas credits the school.

“Wheeling provided me with so many resources that I couldn’t be more grateful for, especially teachers and staff members. If I were to list names, I wouldn’t capture the amount of support I’ve had, but I do want to shout out to Ms. (Erin) Pedersen, Mr. (Lou) Wool, Mr. (John) Uhrik, Mr. (Tom) Schwermin, Mr. (Chad) Scoggins, Ms. (Adriana) Soto, Dr. (Bradford) Hubbard and Ms. (Angela) Hawkins, Ms. (Andrea) Mugler, Mr. (Michael) O’Keeffe, and Ms. (Joanne) Zapata for sure.”

Even considering all of her support, the QuestBridge success, Abbas said, was a surprise.

“I felt very skeptical. It’s insanely competitive and I felt like I had no chance to match.”

But match she did, joining her two classmates, along with 2024 WHS graduate Kristina Sakayeva, who matched with MIT, and 2023 graduates Christina Luna (University of Chicago) and Richard Miranda (Washington University in St. Louis), as QuestBridge success stories, all of which, combined, add up to an impressive trend for Wheeling.

Wheeling educators chalk much of the trend up as a matter of hard work.

“Questbridge is a life-changing opportunity for some of the brightest minds across America,” WHS Principal Dr. Bradford Hubbard said. “We are incredibly proud of Maryam, Tim, and Omar, as they epitomize what it means to be a Wildcat from Wheeling High School and they have earned every opportunity that has been presented to them. They have worked incredibly hard to get to this point.”

Joanne Amador-Zapata, WHS post secondary counselor, noted that the scholarships themselves are only the beginning of the QuestBridge benefit.

“It’s a synergistic occurrence; one which is unique for one student but three in the same year and consecutively over three years is incredible,” she said. “While the scholarship provides invaluable financial support for a top-tier education, its true value lies in the profound impact on their personal and professional growth.”

Which shows no sign of abating.

“It wasn’t easy to get here,” Rodriguez said. “The three of us come from different or difficult backgrounds. The common factor is the ability to apply ourselves and to constantly seek improvement and wanting to become the best that we can be.”