Sahuaro has our very own Flinn finalist who has the potential of winning a $120,000 scholarship. Christina Niyigena, a Senior, holds that title.

“I didn’t think I met the criteria to even be considered,” Christina says. The requirements of consideration for such a high merit scholarship requires applicants to have a 3.5 GPA or higher, to rank 5% in their graduating class, to score a minimum of 26 on the ACT or a 1340 on the SAT, and to demonstrate leadership skills with a variety of extracurriculars. “A lot of the criteria is pretty up there,” she smiles, “so I was very much like ‘let’s just go with it’ and clicked send.”

With hefty requirements, Christina worked hard her entire high school career to get to this spot. “The process itself of filling out this scholarship is really long…there’s 3 essays required, 3 letters of recommendation, and it took months to get done,” she explained. While this might scare hopeful applicants away, the best thing you can do for yourself is finish the application. “It might sound simple, but my best advice to future applicants is to finish and hit send. If you don’t meet all the requirements, it wont hurt you.”

Christina plans on majoring in neuroscience or biomedical engineering at the University of Arizona this upcoming Fall. Best wishes to Christina, and congratulations to becoming a finalist!

For specific information about The Flinn Scholarship, check out https://flinn.org/ for more.