Jeremy Dalcin is setting quite an example for his siblings. The oldest of five children, Jeremy will graduate from Gilman School [an independent day school in Baltimore, MD] this month and head off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Cambridge on a full academic scholarship, worth more than $52,000 a year.
M.I.T. was the computer-guru's top choice for college. He also applied to Princeton, Cornell, Haverford College, Carnegie Mellon, Brown, University of Maryland-Baltimore County and The Johns Hopkins University, among others. All would have been great schools, he says, but he held out hope for M.I.T.
"When the acceptance from UMBC came really early I was like, 'That's a good sign,'" says Jeremy, 18. "Then when Cornell came, I said 'OK, I'm probably going here.' So when M.I.T.'s letter came, that was groundbreaking."
As an adolescent at his neighborhood public school, Pikesville Middle, Jeremy never imagined himself attending such a prestigious college. In fact, he never imagined himself going to Gilman. "I never really thought about private schools because I knewGilman Graduate Earns Full Scholarship to M.I.T. how few scholarships they give out," he says. "Without B.E.S.T.,[Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust] I would have not gone to a private school."
At Gilman, Jeremy was able to "to find what really challenged me and try my best to excel in it. I was given lots of opportunities to find my passion at Gilman." His passions, he discovered, are math and science - and more specifically, computer science. "Programming is extremely fun," Jeremy says. "Creating your own software and testing that out against other creations is really fun."
Jeremy leaves June 28th for a summer program at M.I.T, where he will begin early his journey into the high-tech world of programming. His mother, Rahel Mamo, will miss him not only because he was a good student and a friend to her, but also because Jeremy was always so helpful with his four siblings.
"I'm just so proud of him. He's such a nice kid," says Mamo. "I just hope the others follow his example."
The B.E.S.T. annual fund - which raises money to help support Scholars, programs, member schools and the organization's operating expenses - wraps up June 30th.
If you are interested in supporting B.E.S.T., please click here <https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1000606> or go to www.besttrust.org <http://www.besttrust.org> to donate online.
