Woodside High School senior Aaron Lin has been chosen as a 2024 Gates Scholar
Posted: May 16, 2024
Woodside High School senior Aaron Lin has been chosen as a 2024 Gates Scholar program recipient by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Lin is the Woodside valedictorian and Newport News School Board Student Representative. He will attend Yale University in the fall.
The Gates Scholarship program promotes academic excellence and the cultivation of the next generation of leaders by providing academic support in the form of full college scholarships for outstanding students of color, according to the foundation.
"I was a part of Newport News Public Schools all my life," Lin said. "NNPS provides a lot of opportunities for students to grow. We have so many resources from free Advanced Placement exams, free resources, free counseling and so many after school extra-curricular activities, counselors, teachers around us to really help us grow.
"And I'm really thankful for the opportunities Newport News Public Schools provided me."
Lin's parents emigrated from China in the early 2000s and have owned and operated an Asian food restaurant in Newport News since 2010. Lin has helped out working there after school and on weekends since childhood.
While at Woodside, Lin co-founded Students Say, which is a club created after the COVID-19 lockdown period to help students re-connect to the school environment. The group continued to provide after school time for students to come together, talk about issues they experience in school and to develop their leadership skills.
Lin was notified by email on April 20 that he would receive the Gates scholarship and he and his family were elated.
"When I found out, I was really shocked," he said. "It still feels surreal to think that you get your four years of college paid for. You don't have to have the burden of financial on your parents and your family. It opens a pathway for opportunities to explore.
"And you get this extra funding on the side where you don't have to work a part-time job in college to support your financials. And you can explore different interests. Maybe you can take extra classes or you can explore different activities at college. That really opens your perspective to new interests, possibly."
Lin will be the first person in his family to attend college and plans to study economics and statistics at Yale. He's interested in financial analysis and how nonprofit organizations in communities help under-resourced students.
He worked last summer at local music education organization Soundscapes.
"Soundscapes is a nonprofit that provides free music education to under-resourced communities," Lin said. "I think that's really important since nonprofit work ties into the educational aspects and I want to help find solutions to help solve limited educational opportunities."
Receiving the Gates recognition will not only ease financial burdens, according to Lin.
"Getting the Gates scholarship is like saying you did something," he said. "You achieved something in your community, it represents that you're a leader in your community and they want to support that leadership in college. I think that's one of the very impactful things is they want to continue to foster your leadership skills.
"They want to support that throughout your undergraduate experience. To me it's a sign that they think you're a good candidate for the scholarship, that giving you this opportunity will make you the next leader for your generation."