Abigail Proctor, one of the students of the Class of 2022, who graduated on July 6th, has received a scholarship through the prestigious QuestBridge National College Match programme in the United States.
Abigail, the daughter of Marvin and Murveth Proctor of Caulse Bottom, was born in the American territory of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. This American status has qualified her to apply to QuestBridge. She is the first Anguillian student to receive this full four-year scholarship.
QuestBridge National College Match is a scholarship programme that allows low-income and high achieving students to apply to top US universities and receive generous financial aid. A total of 16,500 students applied to the QuestBridge last year.
The QuestBridge Website states: “We provide scholarships for qualifying high school seniors who have an average GPA of at least 3.93, and are in the top 10% of their graduating class. Financially, 95% of these students come from households with an annual income of under $65,000, and 87% of them qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. The majority of these new QuestBridge students – 81%, are among the first generation in their families to attend a four-year college in the United States.”
QuestBridge applicants who are selected to be finalists can apply to any of the 45 partnering universities and receive early acceptance to attend one of the most prestigious colleges in the US such as Stanford and Yale University.
Abigail is one of 6,312 finalists to be chosen in the programme and one of 1,674 to receive a full “Match Scholarship” valued at US$320,000. She is one of seventy Questbridge Match Scholars who will be attending Rice University in Houston, Texas. There she will pursue studies in Neuroscience on the Pre-Med Track.
Abigail says that she is incredibly grateful to be able to attend college without the stress of putting financial strain on her parents. She wants to help other American-born Anguillian students to participate in the QuestBridge programme for higher education opportunities.
