Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | 2000 Annual Report

Partners for TB Control

Gates Millennium Scholars

Northwest Territories

First Place

United Negro College Fund
$1,000,000,000 over 20 years to support the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

GATES MILLENNIUM SCHOLARS come from every state in the country and attend this nation's top colleges and universities. Students selected for this program represent the best and brightest of today's high achieving youth. These are low-income minority students with tremendous academic promise, demonstrated leadership skills and unmet financial need. In its inaugural year, the Gates Millennium Scholars program expanded access to higher education for 4,000 students; over its 20-year life, the program will provide scholarships to more than 20,000 students.

Hai Nguyen, a freshman at the University of Washington, plans to major in pre-med on her way to becoming a pediatrician, a vocation she believes will allow her to "help young minds and bodies develop to their full potential."

A Vietnamese-American, Hai’s parents immigrated to the United States over 20 years ago in the hopes of finding greater opportunity for their four children. In high school, Hai played tennis for the Evergreen High School Wolverines and graduated among the top in her class. Her ambition to be a future leader was evident in her participation in student government and in her role as a page for the Washington State legislature.

"I try to always get involved and find new and exciting opportunities," she explains. Despite a long list of extracurriculars, Hai has always made time for serving others, including volunteer work at a hospital and nursing home. She has recently returned from a summer study in Japan where she was a Youth For Understanding student, living, learning, and of course, volunteering, within a Japanese community.

As a newcomer to the University of Washington, she admits the massive size is "a little overwhelming," but laughs it off with a confident and determined smile, welcoming its challenges and endless possibilities.

Nicolas Carrasco, a graduate student in biochemistry at City University of New York, attributes his interest in biology and chemistry to growing up in the countryside of the Dominican Republic. "I was always in close relation to nature," he explains. "We were surrounded by trees and my family were farmers."

After moving to the United States, Nicolas faced many challenges. He didn't speak English and he lived in a neighborhood overrun with crime and drugs. Nicolas attended night school and worked in a metal factory by day to help his family. He received his GED and later graduated from Brooklyn College with a biology degree. When asked what advice he has for young people, he says, "Be patient. Be committed. Improve your life through education."

Today, Nicolas is completing research using x-ray crystallography. As he describes the intricate details of working with ribosomes, he modestly says he hopes that one day his work will help people by improving the effectiveness of their medications.

He credits his success to support from professors and family, particularly his mother, whom he tenderly refers to as his "first professor." "I remember when she took my hands to help me learn to write," he recalls. "My mother put a lot of love and trust in us."