By 6 a.m., Kevin Santillán is waiting for a bus that will take him from Fairburn to Sandy Springs, where he is in his senior year at North Springs High School.
It has been the same routine for the last four years. Santillán attends the charter school in order to receive a specialized education in science and technology. The sacrifices of time and effort have been worth it. Not only was he admitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has also been awarded a scholarship.
Santillán’s parents are originally from Mexico and his acceptance is a dream come true.
School secretay Isabel Palasolo has been instrumental in Santillán’s success.
“He told me that he wanted to study engineering and that he wanted to go to MIT, and I said, ‘Oh God, that’s ambitious.’ And I told him: ‘But we have Georgia Tech here.’ And he said: ‘Why not go for the best, if I can do it,’” explained Palasolo.
The encounter left a mark on Palasolo, who poured her energy into researching how Santillán could realize his dream.
She discovered a summer program offered by MIT, to which Santillán attended. The experience gave him a taste of what is to come.
“My parents didn’t have a great education. They’ve always wanted to help us, but at the same time they recognize that they can’t with a lot of things. Financially speaking we’ve gone through times where they weren’t able to give us everything we needed, simply because of their job situations,” said Santillán.
But his parents created an environment where and his siblings felt loved, supported and motivated to succeed. Since a young age, Santillán had a passion for science and technology. In fourth grade he even discovered a talent that has helped him stand out both inside the classroom and out ever since.
“My teachers gave me a handful of wires, some batteries and some lightbulbs, and they told me to make the lightbulbs turn on with only those things. That was one of the times when I saw that I could do something by myself, without having to wait for someone to teach me,” he said. That ingenuity later led to him winning first place in the 2015 Coca Cola Innovation Competition.
North Springs physics teacher Zach Luna wasn’t surprised by Santillán’s acceptance to MIT.
“I’m very excited to see what he’s going to do in the future. I think that all he needs to do is connect with other people and take advantage of those opportunities, because from an academic standpoint every door will open for him,” said Luna.
Santillán believes the key to his accomplishments is passion. He encourages other students to discover and focus on what truly interests them.
“I’ve always believed that someone should do what they love. If you don’t have a passion for what you do, being a good student will be of no use to you,” said Santillán. “I want to come back one day and be able to help others who are in similar situations. … Hopefully one day I will be one of those people you don’t know but who is always there trying to help however they can.”
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