Lake Buena Vista High senior earns full ride to Princeton

Sharon Leonard was only 5 years old when her family came to the United States from Indonesia.

The family of three lived in Philadelphia for a year before moving to Orlando in pursuit of a higher class education system for their daughter.

Now, the Lake Buena Vista High School senior is making her family — and extended school family — proud with her recent acceptance of a full ride scholarship to Princeton University through the QuestBridge match program.

“When I found out I had received the match award, I was so in shock … I was just not expecting it,” she said. “My mom was really happy when she found out … and my dad started crying. I’m really excited to just kind of explore who I am and what I want to do. Princeton offers a lot of amazing opportunities for me.”

PRINCETON PROCESS

Leonard first heard about QuestBridge from her English teacher, Michael Kellen.

Founded in 1994, QuestBridge is a national nonprofit that connects the nation’s most exceptional, low-income youth with leading colleges and opportunities. 

Last year, Leonard applied to QuestBridge’s College Prep Scholars program, which awards a full scholarship to a college summer program hosted by elite schools such as Yale, Emory and the University of Chicago.

After a lengthy application process, she was awarded the opportunity to attend the University of Chicago’s summer residential program, where she pursued her passion for creative writing — more specifically, interactive fiction.

“It combines coding and writing, so I really like being able to give the readers power to decide their own stories,” she said.

From there, Leonard learned about the National College Match program from QuestBridge.

The College Match is “a college admission and scholarship process through which high-achieving, low-income students can be admitted early with full four-year scholarships to QuestBridge college partners,” the organization’s website says.

The program allows students to rank their choice of colleges to potentially be “matched” — or admitted early — with a Match Scholarship, to the college that appears highest on their list that also wants to match with them.

Leonard applied, ranking eight universities and sending individual supplements to seven of the schools on her list.

In October, she found out she was a finalist. 

“I’m just so happy that it’s worked out for her,” Kellen said. “We, me and some of Sharon’s teachers from last year talked and knew she was Ivy League-caliber in her work and the way she approached her subjects. We told her about QuestBridge, but she put in all the hard work to get it done.”

Although Leonard is still trying to decide what she wants to study at Princeton, she currently is thinking of pursuing mechanical engineering or computer science. She also has a passion for languages and history, spurring an interest in linguistics or international relations. 

Princeton offers a three-campus study abroad program in China, Japan and Korea, another route Leonard hopes to pursue.

Already, she has connected with other students across the country who have also matched with Princeton. She said they help each other out and “hype each other up.”

BRAINIAC BEGINNING

Growing up, Leonard said academics always played a core role in her life.

“Education has always been very important to me, so excelling academically has always been a priority for me,” she said. “I know how hard my parents work and what they gave up for us to get here.”

Leonard attended Dr. Phillips High School for two years before moving to Lake Buena Vista when it opened in 2021. As a senior, she will be part of the school’s first graduating class.

“I really love the community here,” she said. “I’ve felt very much at home and comfortable with the administrators and my teachers who have provided me so much guidance. I’ve found a really great space here for me to explore and try new things.”

In her time at the school, Leonard’s long list of exemplary achievements include being part of the National Honor Society, the environmental club and Aspire to Excellence, a program within the Orange County Public Schools Minority Achievement Office. 

“I am just thrilled at the growth I have seen in working with Sharon over the past two years,” Ladara Royal, from the MAO, said. “I have seen her confidence levels increase, and she is coming into her own and believing in herself.”

Leonard is also a part of Girls Learn International, an organization that empowers and educates students to advocate for human rights, equality and universal education in the U.S. and around the world, as well as inspire social change and educate on women’s rights.

As part of GLI, Leonard helped to start a period project, where students at the school placed free menstrual products around campus, as well as hosted period teach-ins where students learned about the menstrual cycle through mini education sessions.

“We’re super proud of her and she’s an outstanding student not only in the classroom and academically, but with how she treats her friends and how she respects her teachers,” Cynthia Wilson, college and career adviser at Lake Buena Vista, said.

To top it all off, Leonard received the highest score in the school on her Scholastic Aptitude Test, a feat she said was completely unexpected, although she studied frequently.

“I was surprised because, for me, I was disappointed with my SAT score,” she said. “I wanted it to be higher. I was very honored to learn of the news because I expected someone else to have a higher score than me.”

On top of her love for English and creative writing, Leonard has a passion for physics, even though it is one of her most challenging classes.

“I love being able to solve physics problems, because they’re so difficult,” she said. “So when I do solve them it just makes it that much more rewarding.”

When it comes to overcoming challenges, Leonard excels.

Last year, after seeing a CottageCore clothing item on Instagram, she decided to make her own because she could not afford it. 

Since then, sewing has become a passion of hers. She is now working to sew her own prom dress from scratch.

Leonard also ran track last year, yet another challenge as she says she is “not athletically gifted.”

“At first, I was so bad I couldn’t even run two laps around without walking,” she said. “I kept training, and I was eventually able to complete the laps. I never won any races. I always finished last, but I still made a lot of progress.”

For Leonard, things that come easy aren’t as rewarding as things that come with challenges.

“There have been plenty of times in my life when lots of different challenging things came along and I wanted to give up because that would have been easier but I would have been really disappointed in myself if I had just stopped midway through,” she said. “Even if I didn’t completely succeed, I would still know that I tried my best.”

However, Leonard says she wouldn’t have been able to reach her goals without the help of her strong support system. 

Her parents always have supported her creative artistic endeavors, buying her a laptop when she was in elementary school so she could write and buying her the sewing machine to pursue her new hobby.

Leonard also relies on her two best friends, Elysia Ramsey from North Carolina, who often stays up on FaceTime to help with supplements for school, and Ainsley Anderson from Lake Buena Vista, who Leonard said has been an amazing support through her college journey and beyond.

 When it comes to future hopes and goals, the young scholar said she has no predictions.

“It’s honestly a blank page,” she said. “I think that there’s a lot of things that I might discover, and I really am too scared to say what it could be. I think it could totally surprise me, or it could be something I predicted. I’m just excited to see what’s next.”

Although the list of accomplishments is long, Leonard says one thing will always stand out to her at Lake Buena Vista.

“I’m proud to have made an impact here in a community sense,” she said. “I’m telling people about QuestBridge, and I’m helping some of the underclassmen figure out how to navigate it. To me, that’s one of the most valuable things I do here.”