Nadia credits her love of learning to Gateway’s teachers and small class sizes. “Some of the best things about Gateway are the small class sizes and the strong relationships that students build with teachers,” says Nadia. “I went to a very big middle school and it was really hard for me to get the help that I needed. At Gateway that all changed.”
Some of Nadia’s most meaningful high school experiences have been with the Burl Toler Scholars program, an innovative and integral program at Gateway designed to motivate and support academically at-risk students’ desire to achieve at the highest academic level through mentoring, college counseling, and college visits.
“The Burl Toler Scholars program helps you understand what your individual strengths and talents are,” asserts Nadia. “It helped me learn the value of community and taught me to have a sense of pride in hard work.”
Nadia will attend Mills College in the fall and plans on studying nursing. She is taking Gateway’s motto of “Step up. Do right. Dream Big” with her and hopes to one day be a nurse practitioner that focuses on maternity health.
Nadia is a recipient of the Gateway High School Founders Scholarship and will receive up to $4,000 to help offset the costs of college in honor of Gateway’s founders who had the dream of creating a school that would be a gateway to college for all students.