The Shenandoah Sentinel
Upper Schuylkill County's Community Connection
The Shenandoah Sentinel
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – John Boctor poses for a photo outside the Shenandoah Valley Junior-Senior High School in Shenandoah on April 29, 2025.
SHENANDOAH – A Shenandoah Valley student is now a Gates Scholar bound for the Ivy League.
John Boctor was selected to receive The Gates Scholarship, described as a highly selective, last-dollar scholarship for outstanding, minority, high school seniors from low-income households.
He will attend Princeton University in New Jersey with a major in economics.
Boctor and Melissa Mikita, a guidance counselor at Shenandoah Valley, recently sat down with the Sentinel to discuss the achievement.
Mikita said she’d never had a student receive the scholarship before.
Regarding Boctor, Mikita described him as “probably one of the best students I’ve had.”
“He’s an excellent example for students to show that you can come from a small school and do great things,” Mikita said.
Boctor is following in his brother, Philopateer’s, footsteps in heading to the Ivy League. Philopateer graduated from SV a few years ago and is attending Yale. He said that was a factor in what led him on the path he’s now on.
“After visiting him [at Yale,] I realized how crazy it is and how much money you’ll see at these universities,” Boctor said. “I’ve always been competitive and then, 10th grade, I realized I want to shoot for the top.”
Boctor has been a leader at Shenandoah Valley, leading and even starting clubs
One of the major benefits of the scholarship, Boctor said, aside from the financial assistance is networking.
As for following in his own footsteps, Boctor says “you have to put in the hard work first. Shoot for the stars, obviously, but if you don’t reach them, that doesn’t define who you are.”
“A lot of people, when they’re applying to Ivy leagues, they’ll say ‘Rejection is redirection,’ and whatever college you get into doesn’t define who you are and the success that you’ll have,” he said.
Kaylee Lindenmuth is a Shenandoah native with a passion for journalism and the community she calls home.
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