Triumph over long odds

[NewsWhore]

The New York Times recently announced the recipients of the newspaper's prestigious Scholar awards for this year, and the winners included Angel Contrera, a young man whose mother immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic. The New York Times, like many newspapers, is struggling in these difficult economic times, and the paper had to reduce the number of scholarships from 20 to just 12 this year, making the selection all the more difficult as a total of 1,400 students applied. The scholarships are funded by the New York Times Company foundation, an endowment created primarily by the Starr Foundation and reader donations. Chosen by a panel of editors, reporters and educational consultants, this year's scholars reflect the varied demographic landscape of New York City. Six of the twelve are immigrants from Russia, Ghana, Nigeria, Vietnam, China and Guyana. Three are children of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Israel. Dominican Angel Contrera said that he was inspired by his mother, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who never finished middle school. She has two jobs, as a cleaner at Yankee Stadium during the baseball season, and at a health club all year round. One of his older brothers is in jail, but young Contrera, who has been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, is ranked first in a class of 209 students at the Frederick Douglass Academy in Manhattan.
The full story can be seen at www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/nyregion/08scholars.html?th&emc=th (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/nyregion/08scholars.html?th&emc=th)

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