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“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Langley, thank you for this opportunity you have given me and my family. Thanks to you, I will achieve two of my dream goals. One of them is attending college, and the other one is to become a teacher.”
Osborne High School graduate Lesly Vasquez spoke those words while standing on the campus of Chattahoochee Technical College, where she is currently studying to become the first teacher in her family. As a recipient of the Langley’s full-ride scholarship—up to $52,000—Lesly is able to attend college and follow in the footsteps of her Osborne teachers and will one day help students just like her teachers helped her.
The Cobb Schools Foundation, which takes student success to new heights, including providing scholarships like the one for North Cobb High School graduate Sarah Triana, helped the Langleys coordinate with Osborne staff to select Lesly for the dream-filling scholarship.
Without the Cobb Schools Foundation and generous Osborne alum, Lesly would not be attending college today.
“My plans after high school were mostly to work and save money. I planned to take a year or two off school and save money to pay for college,” Lesly recalled.
During her senior year, Lesly’s Osborne school counselor provided a list of scholarships for Lesly to consider, but the options only made her feel sad.
As a student who moved to the United States only a few years prior, she was not eligible for many scholarships. So, Lesly put the scholarship applications aside and focused on her high school classes. Focusing on doing her best was something she had done from the first day she arrived at Osborne after moving from her native El Salvador with her family.
The language barrier was the most difficult challenge for Lesly and her family. Lesly listened to her teachers, asked questions, and studied so she could advance out of her English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. When she transitioned into what she heard were “more difficult” classes, Lesly continued to focus on her studies and build relationships with her teachers.
“I would say that my senior year wasn’t easy. I took a lot of classes. I took six classes my last semester. I was taking four face-to-face classes and two online,” the Osborne graduate recalled.
Even with all that she had accomplished, attending college immediately after graduation seemed like an unattainable dream. That is until she learned about the possibility of the Cobb Schools Foundation Scholarship.
When surrounded by a room full of her teachers, her parents, and others, Lesly learned she was the recipient of the full-ride scholarship made possible by the Cobb Schools Foundation and an Osborne alum, Mr. Wayne Langley and his wife Shirley, who also graduated from a Cobb high school. As the life-changing news set in, Lesly cried.
Standing on the campus of Chattahoochee Technical College, Lesly recalled that moment inside Osborne’s media center when she learned she would have an opportunity to attend college, a moment that changed the course of her life.
“I’m so thankful for this. I will always have you in mind. I will always have [you] in my heart. I can’t even think of what you have done for me. I want to cry,” revealed the Cobb Schools Foundation scholarship recipient.
