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Hailee Rainwater from Mountain View High and Matias Gomez from Summit High are both the recipients of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps or NROTC scholarship. The Scholarship is a massive 420,000 dollars that pays for full tuition and fees, provides a monthly stipend, and includes othe…
BEND, Ore. — Local high school students Matias Gomez and Hailee Rainwater both earned massive $420,000 scholarships through the U.S. Navy.
“I felt so special getting that check because it was just like something I’ve never experienced before,” said Rainwater. “I was just like, this giant check is for me.”
Gomez, from Summit High, and Rainwater, from Mountain View High, are both the recipients of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps or NROTC scholarship. The $420,00 covers full tuition and fees, provides a monthly stipend and includes additional benefits such as books and summer training cruises.
“I was so beyond stoked when I found out because my mom and I were sitting on the couch researching it, how many people actually get this scholarship and it’s a very low percentage,” said Rainwater. “So I was really excited when I did.”
Only 1,900 NROTC scholarships are awarded each year.
Rainwater will attend the University of Hawaii. Gomez is heading to Virginia Military Institute.
“I was happy for sure,” said Gomez. “I mean, it was a lot of stress taken away because it’s college paid for, basically, I think I was one of the first in Central Oregon to get the scholarship, so that made me happy as well.”
Gomez and Rainwater are going to school for nuclear engineering.
“I can either be working on submarines, nuclear submarines or aircraft carriers as a nuclear engineer,” Gomez said. “That’s something I can’t choose. That’s something you have to interview for. And they say wherever you want to be. But, either way, on both of them, I think the job is just going to be really cool.”
Once college is finished, they will serve in the U.S. Navy.
“I am really appreciative of the scholarship because if I didn’t get the scholarship, I would not have been able to go to Hawaii and live out my Hawaiian dreams,” said Rainwater.
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